Toy Soldiers
by Ashura
Summary: When Duo is captured and interrogated by Oz, an unwelcome bond with an unexpected saviour sends events spinning out of their control. Warnings on chapter headings--a bit dark.
1. Book I, ch. i

Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura

disclaimer:all the usual crap

pairings:none yet; non-traditional and subject to change

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book I:Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune

****************

Chapter 1:

"The enemy will fail to resist in time."

_--Sun Tzu_

"Sometimes," Duo Maxwell muttered under his extremely irritated breath, "even I'm not sure how the hell I get myself into these things."At present, "these things" meant pounding full tilt and wounded down the corridor of one impressive spacecraft known as Fortress Barge, with half a squadron of soldiers rapidly gaining on him and a quickly depleting supply of ammunition.Things were not looking good for the God of Death, and he knew it.

He turned down a smaller passageway--a service corridor, it looked like, not one widely used by the personnel, and he paused just long enough to heave a great big lungful into his burning chest before he took off running again.There was always a chance, he knew, that the long narrow hallway would reach a dead end and he'd be trapped, but there was just as much of a chance that there's be a chute or some kind of escape route he could make it through.

His pursuers had noticed his detour and turned down the passageway as well--still following him, though a bit slower since there was less room for them between the narrow walls.Not that it was going to do him a lot of good--his legs ached, and the limp he'd acquired when a bullet had hit him just above the knee was starting to get harder to ignore.His lungs were burning, his vision fogging, and only the absolute determination of one whose only hope for survival is to keep running kept him moving at all.

Something whizzed by his head--someone had realised that while it was hard to shoot and chase at the same time, a bullet could cover the distance considerably faster than a person.He dove for cover at the sound of the next shot, crashing into a stack of metal crates set up against the wall for storage.He took refuge behind them, emptying the last of his ammunition into the void of the hallway even though he couldn't see well enough to aim--from the sharp cry and thud that followed his shots, he'd at least winged somebody.

Then, all too quickly, his gun was empty.His leg refused to support him when he tried to struggle to his feet, and a human-shaped shadow fell across him.

"Get up," the voice belonging to the shadow said roughly, wrenching Duo's weapon out of his hand.The soldier was tall, broad-shouldered, and fair-haired; his pale blue eyes were cold and angry and his fingers clenched on the trigger of his gun reflexively."I said get up!"

"I...can't...."It galled Duo to admit it, but short of pushing himself half-upright against the wall, he found his body was refusing to obey his commands.The soldier snarled and seized his arm roughly, yanking him to his feet.

"Shit, he's barely conscious!"A dark-haired young man cut in front of the larger one, his body a deceptively slight mass of wiry muscle."Give me a hand here, Lowen, we need to get him down to holding.They'll be wanting to question him later, and he has to be alive for that."

The taller one growled but deferred, and the smaller man slipped an arm under Duo's arm and around his shoulder.

"He could be faking it," Lowen pointed out, his gun still out and ready."We should--"

"He's not," the other interrupted firmly. "Look at his eyes--I'm surprised if he can even see us by this point.Trust me on this one."

"You're the doctor," Lowen grumbled, but he didn't sound convinced, and even when he slid an arm around Duo's other side, the pilot could feel the muzzle of the gun against his back."In case you are faking it," the low voice said in his ear."Don't try anything."

Duo would have liked nothing better than to "try something," but the truth was that the doctor-turned-soldier, whatever his name was, was right.White fog kept clouding the corners of his vision, making it hard to focus, and he was rapidly losing feeling in his limbs.Escape was just going to have to wait til he was feeling a bit more like himself.

By the time they dumped his limp body onto the floor of the holding cell, he was already unconscious.

*****

Light prickled at the corners of his vision, prodding him slowly into consciousness.Reflexively he tried to stretch, before even realising where he was--and discovered abruptly that he couldn't move.He was sitting up, tied securely to a chair with his hands behind him.His injured leg, now that he was awake to notice it, throbbed with an insistent pain only mildly less than the original sharp agony the wound had inflicted.

"Is he awake?"someone asked--he couldn't tell who, for his vision was no more than blurs of light and shadow coalescing and shifting against his eyelids.

"He will be in a moment."The second voice was instinctively familiar, but not one he could put a face to.Duo tried to blink.It hurt.

//Captured.I was captured by Oz.//It amased him, in some remote part of his mind, that it had taken him so long to reach so obvious a conclusion.Then a rough hand cupped his chin and tilted his head up, and the scrape of fabric across his face told him that even if he could open his eyes completely, it would make no difference.He was blindfolded.

"Can you hear me?" the first voice said--it was deep, a little gravelly, calm and confident.Duo forced a monosyllabic grunt, but it seemed to satisfy."Good.The Lieutenant here says you may have sustained a bit of brain damage, so I'm going to make things very clear and simple for you.I'm going to ask you some questions.Answer them honestly, and we put you back in holding with a good hot meal and some painkillers for that wound.Refuse, or try to play around with us, and I'll make sure you wish you hadn't.Understand?"

Duo said nothing.Interrogation--that was something he understood.Even if he had believed in the tempting promise of warm food and drugs, it was ingrained in him by now to resist.He would not tell them anything.He would give them no information about his or the other Gundams, or the other pilots.He would spill no secrets.

He would probably hurt a lot.

In that, he was correct.Each question the interrogator asked, Duo answered with stony silence.Each time, his silence was rewarded with a sharp slap to the head, or something sharp prodding into the bullet-hole in his leg.The longer he held out, the more brutal the responses, but he found it was nothing he couldn't will himself to ignore.He was a trained Gundam pilot.He was fairly sure that no matter what they did to him, he'd survived worse.

That wasn't to say he didn't scream when the man poured a steaming cup of coffee in his lap, or carved initials into his skin.He just managed not to scream anything but obscenities.

He had long since lost track of time by the time he heard the door open and a low voice say, "This is not getting us anywhere.If you can't get anything out of him, Bronson, that's what we have an interrogation specialist for."

"Yes sir."Duo felt the ropes around his body loosen, and calloused hands rub some of the feeling back into his arms."We'll just take him back to holding for the night--"

"No."The new arrival's voice was a cold, crisp, and unfeeling tenor, and the room's temperature seemed to drop by degrees as he bit off the word.

"Sir?" the original questioner asked.

A long exasperated breath."It hardly seems productive to give the prisoner a full night's sleep before subjecting him to further questioning.Take him now."

"Sir, I must protest."That was the first again, the familiar, softer one--Duo recognised it now as the same doctor-soldier who had first captured him, though he wasn't sure if the man had been in the room the whole time."The injuries he's sustained demand further attention--he could die right out from under you--"

"Did you not understand my orders, Lieutenant?"the cold voice demanded, interrupting him as well."If you have such a problem with it, you are relieved from any contact with the prisoner until further notice."

"Yes, /sir/," the doctor snapped back acidly."Do these orders come from the Colonel?"

"The Colonel," the other responded, "does not need to be bothered with the details of questioning prisoners.You are dismissed."

Duo heard footsteps disappearing rapidly into the distance, felt ungentle hands grip his arms and yank him to his feet."As for you--bring him.Follow me."

The floor was cold and smooth against his skin--had he been barefoot this whole time?He couldn't remember--and his battered body was too drained to keep up with the pace his captors set.He found himself dragged brusquely along by his arms, his feet dragging against the floor, scraping against its surface.His equilibrium was uncertain, and bloodloss had rendered him too weak to resist, or do anything more than will himself to be as heavy as possible for those responsible for carrying him.It seemed like entire epochs must have passed in this feeble darkness before he heard another door open, and he was shoved roughly to his knees.

"Mister Tobita..?"

"This is the prisoner?"someone asked, and a shiver trickled like cold water down Duo's spine.This new voice was high, barely recognisable as male, full of acid and pain and a trill of undeniable pleasure.

"He's the pilot of Gundam 02," the still-unnamed officer responded."He's resisted all of Officer Bronson's efforts, I thought you might have more luck."

"He's beautiful," Tobita purred, the promise of torments as yet undisclosed fairly oozing from his nasal, acidic voice."A pity you had to mark him so badly, Bronson--what /is/ this you've carved into his back?'Oz'--how quaint."Duo shivered as cool, slender fingers caressed his cheek in a ghastly parody of affection."Very well, Major.I shall have answers for you by morning."

"It /is/ morning," Bronson growled.Plainly there was some contention between the two interrogators.Duo found it mildly disturbing that despite the events of the past several hours, he was happy to take Bronson's side.

"As you say," Tobita agreed calmly."Shall we say, zero-eight-hundred, then?That should give me sufficient time to...experiment."

"Play, you mean," the Major said, sounding a little uncomfortable himself."Very well, Tobita.I'll leave you alone until then."

Just before the door closed, Duo heard him add, "and I'll see that no-one else bothers you, either."

"Well now," that calm, cold voice said as the locked clicked shut, dripping with false civility."Let's take a moment to get to know each other, you and I.And we won't be needing /this/."The same long-nailed fingers that stroked his cheek snapped upward, flinging the blindfold across the room in one swift movement.Duo blinked as even the dim light assaulted his weary eyes, and took note of his surroundings.

As far as he could tell, he was in a supply closet.Grey-walled and sterile, it was lined with shelves and boxes and equipment.The only light came from a single bulb in the ceiling, its chain dangling impotently in the air.It was devoid of all furniture save for a single table, shoved up against one wall to Duo's right.

And then there was Tobita.

Long silvery hair, even longer than Duo's own, fell in thick, silky waves almost to the young man's knees, looking out of place with the austere Oz soldier's uniform he wore.His pale face, graceful and elven, would have been beautiful were it not for the sadistic gleam alight in his amber eyes, transforming his face to a twisted, sinister mask.His body was willowy, his hands slender and smooth and tipped by long, black-painted nails that extended like claws.He was beautiful, Duo thought, the way the Devil must be beautiful; striking and uncomfortable, with an aura of evil that enveloped him like a cloud.

"I meant it, you know, my pretty one," he said calmly, his claws cupping Duo's chin."Even with Bronson's marking, you /are/ lovely.But I can do better."He smiled, and Duo couldn't keep himself from wincing."A great philosopher once said," Tobita whispered, leaning down to inhale the scent of Duo's blood-caked hair, "that life without pain has no meaning."His lips brushed the skin of Duo's neck under his ear, and he whispered,"I wish to give your life meaning."

Duo did his best to hold completely still under Tobita's obscenely gentle ministrations, making himself heavy when the slender man hauled him upright and bent him over the table, but his captor was, like the pilot himself, stronger than he first appeared.His already-raw wrists were secured tightly to the table, his cheek pressed against its rough-textured surface.

"Now...before we begin," Tobita said, still smooth as if he weren't about to indulge in torturing a hated enemy, "I realise I'm obligated to give you one more chance to get out of this."He ran one soft hand up Duo's side, fingering the tatters of his shirt."So, Pilot Zero-Two, do you want to give in now, and just tell me where the other Gundams are, and who is giving you orders?"

"Fuck you," Duo responded wearily--he was too exhausted to put any emphasis into it, but it seemed to please Tobita inordinately.

"Oh, I'm /so/ glad," he confessed, walking away from Duo to some corner of the room that the Deathscythe pilot couldn't see."I get so disappointed when they crack before I even have a chance to play...perhaps there is something special about you Gundam pilots after all."

"Glad at least one of us is having fun," Duo mumbled through his swollen lips.

"Oh, I am," Tobita assured him."And I thank you in advance for the fun I'm going to have through the rest of the night...after all, you may not be up to accepting my gratitude later."There was a swish of cool air against Duo's left leg, though nothing touched him."But in all fairness, do remember--you can stop this any time, you know."His body bumped the back of Duo's legs, pressing against him, against his wound."As soon as you reveal the information I've asked for, it will all be over."

Duo forced his lips into a battered semblance of his old grin."What'll be over?You ain't started anything yet."

Tobita laughed--harsh, grating, and menacing."Oh, but I have.You merely haven't noticed, pretty one.But you will."His hand slid up the side of Duo's leg again, and the pilot's injured knee jerked as those cold fingers touched bare skin.//Where the /fuck/ did my pants go?I know I had 'em on a minute ago, and he hasn't touched me--//Another brush of cool air, this time on the other side.He caught a glimpse of motion from the corner of his eye, and had his answer.//A whip.And he hasn't touched me with it yet--man, but that's some control!//He didn't have to think too hard to admit that the prospect was truly terrifying.

Tobita continued to speak to him in soothing, seductive tones, each stroke baring a little more skin, and making Duo's efforts to contain his fear a little harder.He got the idea it wasn't working--the interrogator could /taste/ his terror, he absorbed it out of the air, and he made no secret of the fact that it turned him on.The first time the whip actually crashed against Duo's bare back, he heard a disturbingly sensual moan as blood welled up from his broken skin.It came down again, crossing the first mark, and he bit down on his lip trying not to scream.//I will /not/ give him any more excitement out of this.I won't.I won't scream.//

Then the lash licked the spot on his back where the letter had been carved, and his resolve crumbled before he could even realise it had done so--a howl of pain left his lips, his jaw cracking against the table.

"That's right, my little flower," Tobita crooned, tickling the end of the whip along Duo's thigh."It's not nearly as much fun if you don't scream...."

"That's--/not/--incentive--" Duo gasped out between tearful breaths.At least he could be his own smartass self, observed some part of his mind attempting to distract the rest of him from the pain coursing through his body.It wasn't like this fellow was going to be any easier on him for keeping his mouth shut.

This experience was unlike any interrogation or torture in Duo's previous experience--maybe because this was obviously Tobita's passion in life, though that was something he didn't want to contemplate for too long.Normally there was only so much suffering a body could endure before its sensors began to shut down--nerve endings simply numbed, the pain centres of the brain became so overloaded that everything blended together into one wide, numb ache that could be pushed past and ignored.

Not so this.Each lash of the whip ignited his body into fire all over again, not fading until there were several more to join it.Duo was in the most exquisite agony of his life, and in shame he tried futilely to hide the trails of the tears streaking his face.He was hyper-aware, conscious of every nerve and pore in his battered body as a separate entity capable of its own pain.He knew without contemplation that Tobita would rape him soon--every seductive caress brought him a little closer to the act itself, and the pleasure the interrogator found in his work was obviously erotic.

Frustrated with his own helplessness, his lack of control, and the throbbing pain coursing through him, Duo actually considered, if only for a heartbeat, giving the others away.Anything to make this stop.If begging, bargaining, /anything/ would have worked, he would have done it.He couldn't even pass out, Tobita was too expert at his craft to allow for that.He wanted Duo conscious and hurting, and that was exactly what he was going to get.

A sudden cry as the whip lifted away caught his attention, but he couldn't turn his face toward the direction of these new sounds.All he knew was a sense of profound, exhausted relief as a fierce, icy female voice cut through the dingy room--

"Just WHAT do you think you're doing?"

*****


	2. Book I, ch. ii

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura

disclaimer:all the usual crap

pairings:none yet; non-traditional and subject to change

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book I:Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune

****************

Chapter 2

"...Unite them through benevolence and regulate them through strictness--these ensure internalised discipline."

_--Sun Tzu_

Colonel-Lady Une of Oz had, during the course of her career, been party to a good many terrible things.She had already built up a notorious reputation throughout space as the one who had directly targeted the colonies to force Gundam 01 into self-detonation, and had been willing to sacrifice her own men and the entire New Edwards base to eliminate her enemies.

Treize Khushrenada, leader of Oz and her oldest friend, as well as the man she was hopelessly in love with, had quite thoroughly reprimanded her for both of them.He was far less ruthless in his tactics than she, and grateful as he remained for her devotion, he required her to tone down her method.Most recently, he had extracted a promise from her--that under no circumstances were captured enemy pilots to be tortured.

Apparently, either this order had not yet completely made the rounds through Fortress Barge, or someone had chosen to ignore it.Either way, she vowed, that someone was going to pay quite dearly.The captured pilot was bent over the table--his wrists secured, his clothes in tatters around his ankles, his skin a heated matrix of angry crimson welts.The letters 'OZ' had been brutally carved into him between the shoulderblades, and from the way he tried vainly to stir even his head at the sound of her voice, she guessed he was only barely conscious.

"Colonel," Tobita said--his voice swelled with the bravado she had become accustomed to in him, but she could hear the tremour of fear behind it."I was following orders...."

"Of that I have no doubt," Une agreed icily.Even as she was--satin nightgown clinging to her body, her red uniform jacket draped over her shoulders, her glasses perched hastily on her nose--she knew she intimidated him with more than the pistol pointed at his forehead."Blythe, accompany me.Nichol, Anderson--take Mr. Tobita to holding.There, find out who issued these orders and detain them as well."

"It was Major Stephens," Blythe told her flatly as the other two officers escorted the silver-haired interrogator down the hall.Une shrugged. 

"All that can wait for a decent hour.We need to try to repair whatever damage he's done here."She crossed to the table and bent to unfasten on of the boy's wrists, alarmed when he made no response and only crumpled a little more against it once his arm was free. 

"I'll do the other side," Blythe directed, "just make sure he doesn't fall."Une did not even chastise him for attempting to direct her--he was a doctor, after all, and she had known him for as long as she could remember.So she obliged, catching the boy tentatively under the arms as he started to fall, wincing as her fingers pressed his open wound.He yelped, wordless and primal like an injured animal.

"Cover those wounds with something," the young doctor directed, taking quick survey of the prisoner's face and pulse and lifeless eyes."Something clean, and--shit.Lady, he's barely even alive, I need to get an antibiotic in him and some painkillers before we lose him completely."

"Then get them!"Une snapped.She shrugged her jacket off her own shoulders and draped it over the boy's--it couldn't feel /good/ against his bleeding skin, she suspected, but at least the lining was made of something soft.Her voice was a little gentler when she spoke again."Get whatever you need, Nathan, and meet me back in my quarters."

"Yes ma'am!"He spun on his heel, his dignified exit lasting only a few paces before she could hear him pelting full-speed-ahead down the corridor.Une hefted the pilot's limp body into her arms, cradling him against her chest--he moaned quietly and his head drooped onto her shoulder.

This was /not/ supposed to happen.Treize was going to have her head.

If anyone in the halls that night wondered why the steel-hearted Colonel of Oz could be seen in her nightgown, carrying a battered Gundam pilot back to her own personal quarters, one look at her face persuaded them it was probably in their better interest not to ask.

****

The boy moaned again as Une lay him on her bed, whimpering despite her attempts at gentleness--not that there was any part of his body, she suspected, that he /didn't/ hurt.She eased the jacket out from under him, and pulled one of the lighter blankets up around his waist--whether for his supposed comfort or hers, she wasn't really sure.Some disturbed part of her mind suggested wryly that a half-dead Gundam pilot /would/ be the only man she'd have in her bed on this floating hunk of space refuse, but the rest of her mind was not in the mood for joking.Treize had issued an /order/, dammit, and she'd passed that order along, and it had been broken--and Une was going to make sure that all those responsible paid for that transgression just as surely as she would.

And then there was the pilot himself--he had looked young enough when they'd first captured him, but now, broken and bleeding all over her second-best sheets, he was absolutely pathetic.Like a stray animal, she thought--the predatory sort, that you want to take home and care for even though you know it will turn against you later.

This predator was in no danger of turning on anyone yet, though.It was going to be hard enough just making sure he lived through the night.

"I'll bet they didn't get a damn useful fact out of him for all this, either," she muttered, startled from her own thoughts as a knock sounded at her door and it swung open.

"Sorry it took a little longer than I hoped," Nathan Blythe said, his arms laden with a black leather bag."Damn idiot in sickbay didn't want to give me the painkillers."He flashed her a wry, dark smile."I finally asked him if I needed to drag you out of bed /again/ to retrieve them personally, Lady, and suddenly he decided to be co-operative again."

"Good," Une snapped, standing and motioning Blythe toward the bed."Just keep him from dying, and we'll salvage as much of this mess as we can."

He obeyed, perching on the edge of the bed with his bag on his lap, trying to stifle his horror at the injuries inflicted on this--this /child/.The boy, Nathan decided, couldn't possibly be more than sixteen.//And I thought /I/ was too young to be a soldier.//"We'll keep him on his stomach as much as possible," he decided, rolling the boy over as gently as he could."Tobita managed to keep most the damage on his back, at least, though there are lash marks on the sides of his arms and legs as well.Burns on the thighs and genitals--scalding, I imagine."He shot Une a guilty, apologetic look."I just put him in holding, you know, I didn't know they were going to take him out tonight.I should have kept a better eye out--some of this is Bronson's work, not Tobita's."

"Just save him!"Une growled."We can arrest half the Barge come morning if we have to, but take care of this first!"

"Yes ma'am," Blythe sighed, returning to his appraisal of the pilot's injuries."I'll give him the injections now--can you get me a damp cloth, please, and a bowl of water?"He saw her nod and stalk off to retrieve the things, and set about determining the dosage of the potent painkiller he intended to administer.//For this kind of damage?I could shoot him up with heroine and it wouldn't numb the pain.//He came to a decision at last, filling the syringe and giving it a practiced flick.Locating the vein was easy, it was finding a place not crusted over with drying blood that presented more of a problem.

"Here."Une returned, pressing a warm, damp towel into his hand and setting a bowl of water atop her bedside table.He nodded thanks, finally sliding the needle into the skin of the pilot's elbow.

"Now the antibiotics, then we'll get him cleaned up," Blythe said wearily."That's pensycolene, Lady, it's the strongestwe have, and I've given him a bigger dose than I've ever prescribed for anybody.He's going to be unconscious for eight hours at least.Even after that he'll be groggy, and we'll need to give him more."

The significance of this was not lost on the Colonel."He's not dangerous, then," she said, and he nodded confirmation.

"He will be after he heals a bit, but for the next few days he won't be able to do anything more than lie here.So," he added, almost smiling, "you should be able to get a little more sleep before head-hunting in the morning."

Une sighed, drooping a little at that."At least I have a comfortable couch.I do want to keep him here--I don't want anyone but you and I to go anywhere near him.And here I can keep an eye on him myself."

Blythe just nodded, injecting the antibiotic and depositing both syringes back into his bag to be disposed of later.Beside him, Une had already dipped another towel into the bowl to wet it, and now she leaned across him to lay the damp cloth across the welts on the pilot's back.Together, they washed away the worst of the blood and ripped patches of skin, til the bowl had to be refilled four times and the rim was showing stains of rusty red-brown.

Finally, he stood, gathering all the dirty things and leftover tools."I'll be back to check on him in four hours," he said, and Une nodded.He smiled gently at her--she intimidated the others, but he'd grown up with her, and unstable as she was, he still trusted her enough to call her friend.Besides, he understood her."Get some rest, Colonel."

"I will."She was already rubbing at her eyes, and he thought he heard a yawn as he closed the door behind him.

Inside, Une paused for a long moment to gaze down at the limp body in her bed.Still bleeding in places, still inflicted with grosser injury than she would have even cared to do herself--however ruthless she might be, her methods were always efficient:she might kill people in cold blood, but she didn't /torture/ them.She sighed.At least his face had eased from that mask of agony it had been twisted in.They had decided against cutting his long hair, and gathered it into a loose knot at his neck instead, where it would be kept out of the way, and from brushing against his wounds.

Dammit, why did the colonies send children to pilot those Gundams?A flash of anger at first, then sorrow.//Yes, but how old were you when /you/ joined Oz?Or is a nineteen-year-old Colonel in charge of an entire space fortress really an admirable thing?//

That's different, she told herself fiercely, and went to seek respite on her couch.

****


	3. Book I, ch. iii

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:none yet; non-traditional and subject to change

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book I:Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune

****************

Chapter Three

"Establish the ingrained execution of orders in training one's people, and then the people will follow."

_--Sun Tzu(The Art of War)_

Lady Une stalked down the corridor toward her quarters, seething anger evident even in her gait.Major Troy Stephens had not been pleased when Nichol and Anderson had dragged him out of bed at two-thirty in the morning to drag him down to a holding cell with Tobita.He tried bravado when she confronted him at first--yes, he'd heard the order, but wasn't their job to insure victory at any cost?The boy was only a prisoner, a Gundam pilot of all things.

That, Une had informed him, was precisely why they needed him alive and unharmed.And while victory was an integral part of their occupation, they were soldiers, and they were to follow the orders given them by their commanders.Did he have any further questions?She could arrange for him to have a /long/ time to think over and consider his mistakes.In the end, he cracked.An angry Colonel Une was more than dangerous, she was a force of nature.She left him there with his sadistic interrogator to await court-martial or whatever other consequences she could dream up for him.In the end it would all depend on how Treize took the news of the insubordination.

Une paused at her door, her fingers on the handle, rubbing at her dark-rimmed eyes with her other hand.It had been a long night, and a long morning, and it wasn't likely to get any easier.

She wasn't even surprised to see Nathan Blythe in her room, seated in a chair next to her bed, tending to the prisoner."How'd it go?" he asked, glancing up at her as she entered."There's fresh coffee made, I thought we could both use it."

She made a beeline for the pot."Thanks--has anyone told you you're a saint?"

He grinned at her, almost impishly."I do try.So what's going to happen Stephens and the rest?"

Une shrugged, stirring several spoonfuls of sugar into her coffee--she didn't really care for the bitter taste of the stuff, but had developed a taste and addiction for the stimulant it contained."That depends on what His Excellency decides."

"And how much of your head he rips off?" Blythe summarised sympathetically."Let me make a suggestion, Lady.Wait until he's at least gotten /his/ night's allotment of sleep.Nothing like waking someone up to give them bad news."

Une shot him a rueful look."I am frightening, aren't I?"

He shrugged."I'm not afraid of you.The rest of them deserve it."

Une sighed, slumping against the wall of her room, cupping the steaming mug wearily in her hands."How's our prisoner this morning?He lived through the night, that's something."

Blythe looked up at her, suddenly serious."He did, and that's a good sign--it was by no means certain, he was walking a tightrope over Death's threshold last night.I've done what I can for the burns, and patched up Bronson's horrible graffiti...I can't do anything for the welts and the rest except keep him pumped full of pensycolene while his body heals itself."

"But he'll live."It was half order, half request for confirmation, and the young doctor nodded.

"Yes, Lady, if we keep him where he is, he'll live."

Une let out a long breath, stirring the surface of the hot coffee with ripples."At least I have that to tell Treize...Nathan, what time is it in Belgium?"

He glanced at his watch, then at her."Ten-thirty."

She nodded. "I suppose I'd better make that report.I'll be in my office, let me know before you leave."

He saluted, quickly, reflexively.It was a strange relationship, theirs--he, Une, Zechs, Treize, all childhood friends now thrust into a position of command and subordination to each other."Yes ma'am."

Une spared a last lingering look for the doctor and the battered pilot and steeled herself for the upcoming confrontation.She closed the office door behind her and sank into her chair, setting the half-finished coffee on the table, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, mentally rehearsing her lines.

She entered Treize' personal code, and a moment later his chiseled, elegant face appeared on her screen."Good morning, Lady Une," he said pleasantly."To what do I owe this unexpected call?"

Une wished very, very hard that she could maintain that easy, friendly communication.But she had a report to make."Bad news, sir," she answered with forced calm."Some of my soldiers captured the pilot of Gundam 02."

One elegant eyebrow arched delicately above Treize' blue eye."And that's bad news?" he repeated amusedly.

Une allowed herself the luxury of a long, deep breath before explaining."Only because they disobeyed a direct order and tortured him," she explained, her eyes downcast and fixed on her hands.

Treize let out a breath like a hiss between his teeth."Oh," he said.

****

He had definitely had better mornings.Not that this one had started out inauspiciously--he woke up early, enjoyed his breakfast and a bath, and was in the process of getting dressed and ready for a long, dull day full of long, dull meetings when Une's communication had come through.Such was his life.He'd actually been quite pleased to hear her voice, until she'd explained the reason for her report.

How long ago had he issued that order?Three days, he remembered vividly--more than enough time for the directive to trickle down to even the lowest echelons of Oz personnel, so why the /hell/ hadn't they obeyed it?

"Is the pilot alive?" he asked, almost dreading to hear the answer.

To his relief, Une nodded."Nathan Blythe is tending to him, sir.No-one is allowed contact with him except the two of us."

Treize made no secret of his relief."Nathan is a quite capable physician, not to mention a good-hearted man."He indulged in a sigh that no-one but himself and his trusted Lady would ever see."You're salvaging the situation as well as can be expected.I suppose all the interrogation was ineffective, as well?"

Une's face wrinkled sourly.There was a dark glint in her eyes that spoke of inflicted horrors better left unsaid--and Treize wanted no description of anything that could so unnerve stoic Lady Une."Not a thing.Not a blasted thing.Though by the end I don't think he could have remembered his own name, let alone where the other Gundams are hiding.Tobita had gone over him rather...thoroughly, sir."

Treize cringed inwardly.That was a name that made his skin crawl--he would have prohibited Oz from even letting him sign up, but it would have touched off another political incident."I can imagine.Does that man realise his methods are obsolete in any case; we've had far more success with interrogation drugs?"

Une sighed."I don't think he cares," she confessed."He enjoys it."

"I can tell," Treize grumbled irritably.

"Sir?"Une was nibbling at her bottom lip--an endearing habit, and one he doubted she was even aware of."What should we do with the offenders..?"

He considered."Who did you say you detained?"

"Stephens and Tobita.Bronson was the first interrogator, under Stephens' orders, but he botched it badly."

Treize nodded."Discipline Bronson, but not as heavily.Stephens issued the order, in direct defiance of mine--that'scourt-martial-worthy, at least.As for Tobita--oh, just get him out of there.I know, transfer him to the lunar base.We'll send him to Tsuberov, where he'll have no-one to play his...games with but mobile dolls."

And, he thought dryly, maybe we'll get lucky and the Gundams will blow up the whole lot of them at once.

Une nodded, relief written plainly across her smooth features."Yes, sir."

"One more thing, Lady," he added, "and then I have a meeting I unfortunately need to get to.I'd like to discuss the entire situationwith you, a bit more...fully.Can you be in Brussels in...say, two days?"

If she was startled, she disguised it well."Of course, sir.I'll make the arrangements."

"Thank you."He nodded farewell and clicked off the terminal.//Maybe it's not a good idea to take you out of Barge, Lady, but I need a friend here now.Forgive me....//

****

Slowly, tentatively--feeling out with numb senses, trying not to get his hopes up just in case he was wrong--Duo came to the conclusion that he wasn't dead after all.

Amasing.

He was not, however, quite sure where he was.The last he remembered--no, that hurts, don't move like that--he was running away from the Oz soldiers, and he'd been shot in the leg.Then they'd taken him to acell, and then taken him /out/ of the cell, and--

Oh, right.That.

Gingerly, he flexed the muscles in his left leg--nope, still hurt.In fact, everything hurt, just in a nice vague detached kind of way because he couldn't completely feel his body.That was probably a good thing.In fact, it almost felt like he was lying on a nice soft bed, and if he kept his eyes closed he could imagine that's exactly what it was, not the hard cold cell floor he was undoubtedly actually lying on.

Voices buzzed unintelligibly close by, and he forced unresponsive ears to adjust to their tones.One female, one male, and he had no idea what either of them said.No, wait, that sounded like "good-bye," and then the click of a door closing.

Then he moaned, because trying that hard /hurt/.

"Are you awake?"the female voice asked gently--closer this time, so he didn't have to strain so hard to hear.He forced his cracked lips to make some sound he hoped was affirmative.

"Good," she said."Are you hungry?"

"Hurts," Duo groaned, trying to convince his muscles to respond again.His stomach growled.Hungry?Why, yes he was.He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten a genuine meal.

The floor shifted under him, like a bed would if someone had been seated on it, and were standing up.Wait--that meant--

"I'm not surprised.We've given you more painkillers, they'll take effect soon.If I help you, can you sit up?We should really get some food into you, otherwise we'll have to set up an IV."

"Nnnn...I c'n eat...."Duo slurred, though he wasn't completely certain that he actually could.He felt an arm slide gingerly around his waist, guiding him upright--his eyes rebelled, sending his brain into dizzying spins, and he hid his face in the woman's shoulder, squinting his eyes closed."Hurts," he whimpered again.

"I know."The soft voice was sympathetic, a gentle hand touching his hair tentatively before setting him upright at last."Stay there and get oriented while I grab you some lunch.I warn you it's not great, but unfortunately that's the joy of space food.It's what we all get to eat."

The dizziness finally began to clear, but his eyelids, he found, were still too heavy to force open.The surface under him shifted again--maybe it was a bed, and he wasn't hallucinating; if he was that injured they could have put him in sickbay, right?Assuming he was still with Oz.Anything was possible at this point.

"Open your mouth," the woman directed--a simple matter of dropping his chin, and he felt the solid metallic edge of a spoon pressed against his lips, then through them.He swallowed reflexively.She was right, it wasn't good, but at that first taste of nourishment, Duo's body kicked into survival mode and reminded him it was actually quite hungry, and he hadn't been taking proper care of it.

Not that it hurt any less to sit up, to eat, to move, to breathe....

"Why're you be'n' nice t'me...?"he tried to ask.His unresponsive lips let the words out, but missed a drop of the gruel she was feeding him, and it trickled down his chin."Thought I's bein' 'terr'gat'd...."

"You were," she answered, dabbing the fugitive drops from his face."Against a very explicit order."She paused a moment, as if she wanted to say more and couldn't--then, softly,"I am sorry.It wasn't supposed to happen."

Reluctantly, Duo pried open one eye to meet the soft hazel ones so close to his own.Recognition flashed in his mind, tried to escape, circled a few times and finally settled in his shocked brain--//Colonel Une??//One hand pressed experimentally into the floor--it /was/ a bed, and the room, what he could see of it, had the look of someone's personal quarters.//I'm in Colonel Une's room?/She's/ the one taking care of me and feeding me and--are we absolutely SURE I'm not actually dead?//

But he couldn't be dead, because she was prodding at his mouth with the spoon again."Stop staring.Eat."

He could, he supposed, just be dreaming.Dreams could be pretty real sometimes.There had to be some way to make sure--then again, this could be an elabourate plot, as well, to get him to trust--"'re there drugs in't...?"

She shook her head, still pressing at his lip with the spoon."No.All the drugs we've been giving you are painkillers, and they were injected."

Duo was definitely confused."How're you gon' get inf'rmation outta me, th'n...?" he wondered.

The Oz Colonel sighed."We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.Right now, just believe you're too weak to risk giving you any mind-control drugs, or anything more than strong painkillers.Now eat."

"Oh."That seemed to make sense, in a convoluted, incoherent sort of way, much like his next question."Wass your name?"

She gave him a look that bordered on amused frustration."You must be feeling better, if you're talking.I said eat."

"Sorry...'m not good at follow'n orders..." He willed up a shadow of his customary grin, and felt the skin at the edges of his lips crack with the effort.

He saw the corner of her mouth twitch--not quite a real smile, or even the ghost of one, but it was enough for Duo.For now."I'm Lady Une," she answered."Now eat, unless you want to be plugged in to an IV and get your nutrition that way."

"'m Duo Maxwell," he informed her, finally accepting the gruel and swallowing it through his introduction."An' you din't answer all th' way...tha's like a title, not a name...I ask'd y'r name..."

Her mouth twitched again--he wondered if that was as close as she ever came to smiling."If I tell you, will you stop talking and eat?"

He nodded, or at least tried to, it made him dizzy and his head drooped against his chest.Une slid her fingers under his chin and tilted his head back up."Gee, usually Ozzies're tryin' to make me talk...th' only ones who /don't/ wan' me t' shut up...."

"It's Nicole," Une said abruptly, effectively silencing him by shoving the spoon into his mouth."And nobody knows that, so keep it to yourself."

Duo mumbled agreement, finding himself disturbed by the sudden harsh sorrow in her soft eyes.He ate obediently, but nothing else he tried, by the time the painkillers kicked in again and he lost consciousness in the centre of her bed, could coax even a shadow of a smile to her face.

****


	4. Book I, ch. iv

Toy Soldiers

Sorry for taking so long with this!Had trouble with Treize.Then I realised that like most men, he's most compliant when drunk... *grin*Well, enjoy!

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:non-conventional and subject to change.Ooh, and one actually gets revealed in this chapter!But it's not a major one...and it's a surprise.Sorry, it's kinda important to be a surprise.

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book I:Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune

****************

Chapter Four

"Act when advantageous, halt when not advantageous."

_-Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

"Y'r leavin' me...."Duo's petulant, semi-coherent moan grated accusingly in Une's ears."An' 'ere we were gettin' on s'well, too...."

She favoured him with an arched eyebrow and a wry look, half-bent over her bag as she tossed toiletries into it."You're very comfortable for a prisoner."

He tried to shrug, but winced with the sharp pain that broke through his feigned nonchalance."Cause you got a nice place 'ere....better'n the holes I usually getta sleep in...."She didn't answer, and he watched her pack for a few more silent minutes before adding, "Sides...y' know how t' play the game by th' rules.'Fyou go 'way, whose gonna keep me from endin' up in the closet 'gain...?"

"That," Une answered firmly, zipping the pack shut, "is not an issue.Dr. Blythe is going to be keeping a close eye on you, and for an entire list of reasons.He," she added thoughtfully, her head cocked as she regarded the frail boy in her bed, "plays the game at least as well as I do."

Duo slumped into the pillows, but it was relief as much as resignation that relaxed his battered body.His lips moved, but his voice was so faint that Une had to abandon her duffel and perch on the edge of the bed before she could adequately hear him.

"...wonder s'mtimes," he whispered, "'f there coulda been a way for us allt' be on th' same side...."

A sad, wistful smile flickered across Nicole Une's face for an instant before it disappeared."That's what makes war a game," she explained softly, as glazed violet eyes blinked dazedly up at her."The sides are never so black and white as we'd like to be able to believe...sometimes it's hard even to know who all the players are."

Duo shook his head feebly, his pale, sallow face surrounded by damp, tangled wisps of chestnut hair."Not a game, Nic...not when people're gettin' killed."

Une's hazel eyes softened, however briefly--then it was as if a shutter had slammed closed behind them."I have to go," she said, all business and orders again, standing abruptly and slipping on her jacket.

"Jus' minute," Duo murmured sleepily from the bed."Want'd t' tell you, see...ev'n in war, there's some things people jus' shouldn' do.A lot'v soldiers...f'rget that.I do, sometimes...s'I jus' wanted to thank you f'r stoppin' him...honest...."

"I was obeying an order," Une reminded him coldly, swinging her bag over her shoulder.Mr. Treize needed her, had requested her presence, and she would not keep him waiting."As I am doing now by leaving."

Still, she couldn't help turning back, just once, before she let the door close after her.

"I forget sometimes, too," she admitted reflectively, unsure whether she only imagined that the blue-violet eyes flickered open once at the sound of her voice."The longer we play the game, the less real it becomes--and the more acquainted we are with the rules.But I think sometimes we all need to be reminded."

And then she locked the door behind her.

Duo lay staring at the ceiling for a long time after Une disappeared--not that he could really do anything but lie there in her bed, but even had he been able to move without pain, every time he tried to bestir himself to move, he found he couldn't find the motivation.While still fuzzy in the head and covered with injuries he was sure would be agonising if deprived of Dr. Blythe's regular doses of pensycolene, he was not /quite/ so incoherent as he had led them to believe.He had a high tolerance for drugs, and he had felt the steadily declining effect of the painkillers as the hours--had it been days?--progressed.But he knew that the only way he would escape Fortress Barge would be to lull his captors into believing he was an invalid.

His captors.They confused him.At least Une did.Nathan Blythe was an easy enough person to figure out; he was a doctor, and doctors tended to see people as patients before considering them enemies or allies.But Une...in the space of a few encounters, his preconceived ideas about the notorious Oz colonel had been dissolved.He remembered her as the one who gave the order to destroy New Edwards, who was willing to sacrifice her own men--how could he reconcile that Une with this one, who gave up her own bed for a captured enemy and spoon-fed him soup?

There was one explanation, of course.He'd heard the rumours before--Lady Une, it was said, had split personalities.There were two completely different women residing in that delicate face, and he was simply being privileged to see the side few others were ever exposed to.He recalled how her face could close in a matter of heartbeats, and how she had shut herself off when he'd asked her name.'Nobody else knows,' she'd said.He still wasn't sure, if it was such a closely guarded secret, what had possessed her to answer when he'd asked.

Oh, he had one idea, but he wasn't sure if it was something he ought to dwell on--after all, these were still his enemies.

But he had a feeling--a nagging, sneaking suspicion that tickled at the back of his brain--that Nicole Une was desperately lonely.

****

"Lady...I'm so glad you're here."Treize Khushrenada let out a long sigh, his regal posture wilting in near-exhaustion as he let the door to his suite close behind them at last.It had been a long day, full of the usual tedious meetings and backstabbing politicians, but unlike most days, business had seemed to revolve around the merits of Tsuberov's Mobile Doll units.Treize hated Tsuberov /and/ his toys with a passion that bordered on religious fervour, and even he found it increasingly difficult to keep his composure after the third straight hour of being told how the unmanned suits would revolutionise war.War was only worth anything when real people were fighting for noble values, otherwise it was just a lot of innocent people getting killed, and where was the merit in that?

"You asked me to come," Une answered neutrally.Always careful, that one.But he could see the sparkle in her eyes, when she turned away, and for a moment he regretted his decision.There was too much baggage between them to ever make them good lovers, yet he was well aware that she had loved him practically since they were children.It wasn't fair, he realised, to take advantage of herdevotion when all he would ever want from her was friendship.

But she was so willing to take whatever he offered, and she and Zechs were the only true old friends he had.

So he stifled his regret, and smiled warmly at her, and drew her inside."Will you share a bottle of wine with me, Lady?" he asked, and she nodded, following him gracefully into the room.He guided her to a chair, but she pre-empted him with the bottle, motioning him to sitwhile she poured.

"Your Excellency looks tired," she observed, almost crisply--it made sense, he knew.Her harsher self tended to take over when she was nervous about anything; it was easier for her.Well, he could remedy that.

"Please, Nicole."Her hazel eyes widened and the glasses clinked together as she came very near to dropping one."None of that tonight--I am too tired to be His Excellency.Truly I would rather only be Treize, sharing good wine with a dear friend."

Her gaze lowered and she slid his glass to him across the small round table that separated their chairs."Very well...Treize.You still look tired."

"I am," he admitted, shedding gloves and jacket before raising his glass to touch against hers."To both our good health, my dear...and yes, it has been an exceedingly long day.You will have to back me up, you know--I've been trying to talk the Foundation out of using mobile dolls til I'm nearly hoarse with it, and still they aren't listening.You may have methods I have yet to discover."

A glint of steel flashed in Une's eyes--perhaps there was more shared between her two halves than he'd been led to believe."I assure you, Yo--Treize...anything I can do to help you, I will."

"I know you will."He reached out to squeeze her hand briefly."But that's not really what I want to talk about, Nic...I am intensely tired of that subject.Why don't you tell me instead about that Gundam pilot you captured?Is he faring better?"

She nodded, but her expression was guarded and noncommittal."Nathan is keeping him barely conscious on painkillers.He's healing, slowly.I think he's delirious a good portion of the time," she added, a twitch of her lips /almost/ becoming a smile.

That was rare indeed, and Treize seized on it."Delirious?How so?"

Her soft eyes fixed on her hands, twisting around the stem of her glass."Just some of the things he says," she admitted after a moment."Not the sort of things you expect people to tell their enemies--certainly not their captors."

"Such as..?" Treize prompted.Somewhere during the course of the conversation his glass had run empty, and Une reached across the table to fill it.

"Well, he complained that I was leaving him, for one thing," she confessed, and Treize failed utterly in his attempt to not laugh aloud."Thank you, that's what I thought.Yesterday he told me I had pretty eyes, and--well, things like that," she finally amended, stumbling to an awkward halt.

Treize nodded sagely."They're a surprising lot, those Gundam pilots," he agreed.

"But you respect them," she interjected, eyeing him thoughtfully. Once again she was reading his face without the need for explanation, and he nodded again.

"They would never approve of mobile dolls either."

Une shifted in her chair--presumably to reach for the bottle again, and refill the glass that had once again become empty.Treize thought it was odd that he was already beginning to feel lightheaded--three glasses of wine was hardly enough to make him tipsy!

Then he remembered--there had been cocktails at the evening meeting...wine at dinner...spritzers previous and champagne for brunch...come to think of it, he'd been drinking all day.

"That's why you don't want them tortured," Une said, pulling him back from his contemplation of the day's alcohol intake with another serious statement.This one, however, was not /completely/ accurate.

"That's part of it," he affirmed."And the rest--I made a promise."

Confusion spread plainly across her features."A promise, sir?"she repeated, too startled to correct herself from the formal address.

As Treize nodded, he realised abruptly that what he /really/ wanted to tell someone had finally reached a window of opportunity.He had--well, he supposed it would be considered a problem, and he desperately wanted to get it off his chest, and one of the only two people in the world he would /ever/ consider revealing such a secret to was right here with him in the room.

"Yes.A promise.I must confess, Nic, that I haven't been completely honest with you...or for that matter with anybody.But you have to swear, on everything you hold most dear to you, that you'll never tell."

If she had been bewildered before, now she was very close to simply suspending reality and being done with it."I promise," she said automatically, still toying with the stem of her barely-empty glass.

Treize leaned toward her, his tone lowered conspiratorially."I've met a Gundam pilot too," he explained, his normally adept mental faculties straining to determine the best way of imparting this revelation."You've seen him--the one I dueled with."

Now Une was merely puzzled--this hardly seemed like the sort of secret she should be sworn to keep.Everyone in Oz knew that Treize had dueled the pilot of Gundam 05."Yes, I know him."

It was Treize' turn, as he leaned back into his chair, to look surprised and bemused and unsure."It's the most bizarre thing, Nic...truly.I would never have thought it--just something right in the chemistry, I suppose, because under normal circumstances I don't think it would have happened--"

"Sir."She interrupted gently, depositing her glass on the floor near her chair and leaning across the table to silence him with her finger."Treize.You're babbling.What are you trying to say?"

"Yes.What am I trying to say."He was discovering this was harder than he'd anticipated, but still the words burned to be shared."What I'm trying to say, Nic, is that I promised him we wouldn't torture any pilots we captured because--because I think I'm in love with him."

Her eyeswidened, and she snatched back her hand as if he'd burned her."I--I see--"

He might have noticed her trembling, had he not felt so lightheaded with the release of his awful secret, let his eyes close and his head fall back."God, you have no idea how good it felt to get that out."

There was barely even a moment of silence before she answered."Then I am glad to have been here to help," she said.

****


	5. Book I, ch. v

Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:One more revealed this chapter!You know I'd tell you if it wouldn't spoil the surprise...but you might have guessed by now, ne?So far: 13x5.

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book I:Sweet Bells Jangled Out of Tune

****************

Chapter Five

"Act when advantageous, halt when not advantageous."

_--Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

//I think I'm in love with him.//

The words echoed in Une's brain, stubbornly refusing to fade from her memory.They lingered long after Treize had passed out in his chair, past the point when she had hauled him to his bed and tucked a blanket around him before escaping to her shuttle and the safety of Fortress Barge.It did not good to try to shut them out and retreat back into the compliant haze of denial that she had taken refuge in so long--he had confessed far to much to her, in alcohol-enhanced trust, and her battered heart ached for it.

It was almost too surreal to believe.She remembered the duel itself, between Treize and the pilot of Gundam 05, but had not been witness to the aftermath.For that she was glad.Treize had come out the victor, but had been too intrigued by the Gundam pilot's integrity to kill him.It was the rise of adrenaline, he claimed, for a man's reaction was not so different between war and sex.He said he was entranced by the young man's defiant dark eyes, and without really thinking about what he was doing, he had claimed a different kind of death as his prize for the duel.

To his even greater surprise, the boy had, if reluctantly, agreed.It was a strange kind of honour that Une did not understand, this submission to long-outdated rules of warfare that had led them from the field to the bedroom.Neither one had any real experience with another man, but from Treize' halting explanations--sometimes vague allusions, sometimes painfully clear--they'd been reasonably successful at figuring it out as they went along.

But that was not what kept Une's heart clenched so tight.She had known, if in a vague and undefined way, that Treize was hardly celibate; she had merely avoided thinking about it.Wufei understood him, he told her, as not even she or Zechs could; they were both old souls, warriors holding desperately to a code the world seemed to find no value in anymore.That they were both men, that they were enemies--these were unpleasant truths, but they made no difference in the feelings that continue to grow until they could no longer be controlled.It hurt them both, that they still fought on opposite sides, and the promise had been Treize' attempt to keep divided their two lives.It made sense, even she could see that.They needed to lay down rules, or the parts of them that were adversaries would bleed into their love affair, and poison both.

But the way he described the pilot...there was a shine in his eyes she had seen only once before, and that was what chilled her so thoroughly.//It was the same with Leia...he only had to see her once, and he was gone.//But it hurt too much to recall--the memories were too much to bear.She tried to take refuge in the side of her that was cold and ruthless, but that side cared as much as her softer self did.One half of Une loved Treize, the other half killed for him, and she no longer had the power to be strong.

//I won't cry.I won't.It's weak to cry.//

Masking her pain in pride, she fled for the sanctuary of her room.

****

Duo heard the faint whir of the door sliding shut, and forced his breathing into a steady, even pulse.He'd gotten in the habit of pretending to be asleep whenever anyone was present; the worse off they thought he was, the better chance he'd have of escaping later.Oh, he knew when he did that he was going to miss Dr. Blythe's regular injections of pensycolene, but he'd survive.He'd just be in a lot of pain.It wouldn't be the first time.

It was in the midst of this reverie that he realised that whoever had come in hadn't checked on him yet.More to the point, the muffled sound coming from the direction of the door sounded suspiciously like someone trying very hard not to cry.

He rolled carefully onto his side and cracked open one eye.He could see Une's blurred silhouette, her back to the door, hunched forward with her head in her hands.His breath caught in his throat with the startled realisation--she really was crying.He wouldn't have thought it possible--he wasn't sure why, but it was true nonetheless.

And while he was certainly no expert, he could think of only one thing that could bring Une to tears.

His body never really bothered to consult his brain, just stretched sore bruised muscles and crawled out of bed, straining against the fog of dissolving painkillers and extreme injury.He hated to see anyone upset."Hey...what's the matter...?"he asked, padding across the floor to face her.

She choked off a sob, trying to school her face into its usual calm facade, but her lip was trembling as she tried to order him back to bed."I feel fine," he protested, though he didn't, and disguised his very real pain by pressing his hands against the door to each side of her shoulders."But you don't, that's obvious...c'mon, Nicole, tell me what's wrong...or let me guess...Treize?"Each syllable brought her defenses a step closer to crumbling, and by the time the name left his lips she was shivering, sliding weakly down the wall.

Duo dropped slowly to his knees to face her, his body protesting his sudden ill treatment of it.His fingers brushed her cheek, tilted her face up to meet his gaze.The devastation in her soft hazel eyes was as painful in its own way as the dulled sting of the letters carved into his shoulderblades."Even I can see how devoted you are to him.He /should/ love you."

She shook her head frantically, tearing her eyes away."No."The single syllable hung in the air between them and shattered as if it were a tangible thing."He couldn't," she whispered brokenly."Not after what I've done...not when he loves one of you."

"One of--"Duo blinked back shock as Une, defeated, sagged back against the wall.He didn't understand what her words meant, sinking slowly into his still-foggy brain--it was at least as uncomfortably startling as the fact that he was kneeling over the crumpled, sobbing form of an enemy and wanting irrationally to comfort her.

He gathered her into his arms and cradled her against his chest.Some part of his brain, attempting unsuccessfully to remind him that this was still his enemy, noted with detachment how fragile she seemed, how her crimson uniform jacket seemed too big for her, how she sagged limply against him."If Treize can't see what he's missing in you," he whispered soothingly, "then he's an idiot."

She started to look away again--he caught her chin gently in his fingers and turned her back to him.He would never really understand later what made him initiate that first tentative kiss, pressing his lips against hers with surprising tenderness--the instinct to comfort, he would claim, and the real proximity of her slender curves to his only-too-teenage body.He would understand even less what made her respond, save her desperate need to be cared for, to fill the aching emptiness in her soul.At the time it was enough.He tasted the salt of tears on her lips as she melted against him, and drew her carefully upright--they balanced on each other, backing step by slow hesitant step til she tumbled onto the bed and he climbed more carefully over her.What little of his mind remained cogent tried to caution him--//This is your enemy,// it told him, //your captor.Not your friend.//

//Not true,// he told the inner voice to silence it.//Colonel Une is my enemy, that's true...but not Nicole.And this--this is only Nicole....//

He lost his balance trying to slide her jacket from her shoulders; his arms ceased to hold him up and he collapsed on top of her, feeling her rapid heartbeat and the soft swell of her breast beneath his cheek.His battered body responded despite its injuries, and their next kiss was urgent, feverish.

Une was not a virgin, but neither was she particularly experienced--she never seemed quite certain what to do with her hands, and after her awkward fumblings touched one too many of Duo's countless bruises he put a stop to them, pressing her wrists into the mattress with a gentle admonishment not to interfere.He moved slowly for both their sakes, his deliberate exploration of her body a testament to their respective frailties.Her ragged breathing was punctuated by whimpers when at last he entered her, his own hypersensitive nerves singing with the caress of her skin.They rocked together in rhythmic, lonely desperation, struggling against despair, their completion thick with as much heartache as pleasure.

Still, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling, when they curled together like frightened kittens, and drifted to sleep in the damp, tangled sheets.

****

Duo was dragged into consciousness by the insistent burning ache in his limbs.The last dose of pensycolene had worn off a bit early thanks to his unexpected nocturnal activities, and now the renewed pain of his injuries woke him ahead of schedule.

For a few minutes he was content to ignore it, lying with his head pillowed comfortably against Nicole's shoulder, one arm and most of his hair splayed across her chest, the light blanket a comfortable weight against the parts of him not still covered in welts.

Then the uncomfortable revelation hit him--this was his chance.

It was probably the only one he was likely to get.Nicole's steady breathing and the flutter of her lashes suggested she wouldn't wake up soon, and it wasn't yet time for Dr. Blythe to come pump him full of drugs.The passkey was in her jacket pocket.He could be gone within minutes.

Duo bit back a groan.//I could, but I'd feel like an asshole.Hell, I'd BE an asshole.She'd think I seduced her just to escape.//

The little voice of survivalism wanted to know--rather uncharitably, in Duo's opinion--why he cared one way or the other what she thought of him once he was gone.

He disentangled himself from her, and crawled out of the blankets, fumbling for his clothes.He told himself that she would understand--she had said herself, she knew how the game was played.They were still fighting on opposite sides of a war, and she wouldn't fault him for taking the opportunity he was presented with.

He still felt like an asshole.

Finally, he reached a compromise with himself.No-one could move as silently as the self-proclaimed God of Death, and Une was still dreaming, curled on her side.Duo flipped on her computer--any communications programme would do, he didn't need anything complicated.

After all, he just wanted to leave a note.

****

Lady Une slumped in her chair, her chin propped on her upturned hand, staring blankly around her quarters.She hadn't been dreaming; the evidence was still very present, from the soiled sheets to the message flashing brazenly on her console screen.

And most importantly, the pilot was gone.

She read it over once again, still unsure what to make of it or its significance.

//Nicole,// it read, and she winced, reflexively turning to block thescreen despite the fact she was alone.

//I know this is the worst sort of low, and I apologise.I don't want you to think I'm the kind of asshole who would sleep with you and run away--normally I'm not.But you should understand.It's part of the game.'Act when advantageous,' Sun Tzu said.I'd be an idiot not to escape now.You understand that.//

//But that wasn't why I kissed you.//

//I hope you feel better.And tell Treize I said he's a fool.//

//Duo.//

Well, that was that then.She had to make her report.Treize would be awake, she should tell him as soon as possible--and part of her was quite tempted to relay Duo's message to him verbatim.

She found a little vindictive pleasure in seeing his sleep-mazed face appear on her screen when she typed in his code--so he wasn't completely ready to go about the day yet after all.He straightened immediately after one glance at her expression.

"Lady...you left quickly.Is there some emergency of which I should be made aware?"

"Indeed," she returned acidly."Our captured Gundam pilot has escaped."

"What?"Even Treize' famous composure could not totally contain his surprise."I thought he was too drugged to move!How did this happen?"

"Apparently," said Une wryly, "he got better."

Treize frowned."Such a trouble, that--we just lost our biggest advantage, and without him we're certainly not gaining any supporters down here.At least I hadn't gotten around to /telling/ them we had a captured Gundam pilot in your bed--"

"Your Excellency," Une interrupted coldly, her eyes flashing white fire."How many times, /sir/, have /you/ had a Gundam pilot in your bed and let him go free?"

Treize paled, his initial expression of shock replaced almost immediately with regret.

"So," he said softly, "that's why you left."His gaze turned down toward his hands and he refused to meet her gaze.It was so unlike him, and so endearing ,that she found herself softening."Well," he continued sadly, "we shall just have to make amends, somehow."

He might have meant within Oz, or he may have meant between the two of them.With Treize, it could be so difficult to tell.

[end book I]


	6. Interlude: Inferno Rosa

Toy Soldiers: Interlude

This didn't really fit anywhere else, but Treize and Wufei's relationship really did rate a little more exploration, since it's such a focal point for so many things that happen in the story.This slides neatly in between books I and II, after Duo has escaped from Fortress Barge and let the others know he's all right.

It is a lemon.Like most of my serious lemons it's mostly psychological, but there are still graphic depictions of yaoi sex, so if the thought of Treize and Wufei going at it turns your stomach, you might want to give it a pass...or just read the first couple pages and stop when things start getting heavy, because the beginning is pretty much just Wufei contemplating things.I mean, I'd like it if you gave it a try, of course, but I don't want to disturb anybody!And if you like lemon, well, here, it's my first ever 13x5, have fun!

Ash

****

Toy Soldiers:Interlude

Inferno Rosa

by Ashura Nagisa

standard disclaimers apply

archive:Desolation Angels (http://www.dreamwater.net/ashura)

pairings:13x5

warnings:POV yaoi lemon

notes:since Yahoo doesn't always show italics, I want to clarify that when Treize says 'dragon,' even as a single word instead of the longer 'mon petit dragon,' he's speaking French and it should be pronounced as such.

*****

"You promised."

I meant to be defiant, accusing, but I know I only sounded tired.Treize nodded--regretfully, I thought--and sank onto the edge of the bed.He looked weary, threadworn--it was one of those rare moments when I realised my lover was really only a man.

I didn't want a man.I wanted a god.Treize had beaten me at so many games, and my pride demanded that he be more than human.The victor of my body and champion of my hard-won heart must not be as mortal as I.

"I did," he agreed softly, and I realised I had almost forgotten my charge against him, lost as I was in my own thoughts."I never meant to break my promise to you, _mon petit dragon_, and I have remedied it as best I can."

I wanted to tell him it wasn't enough--that /he/ wasn't enough.I wanted, as I had so many times before, to call an end to this bizarre affair and restore our relationship to something that made sense.But I didn't, couldn't, just as I never could, because some part of me knew this was the /only/ thing that made sense.I understood him, and it bound me to him.In the end I was really no more than Treize's Wufei.

//_And is he then...My Treize?_//I tried out the words in my mind, but they tasted strange.I am not the sort for romantic turns of phrase, and while his public facade may have seemed otherwise, neither was he.We were lovers, true, but we were not lisping effeminates drowning each other in affection.He made me strong.He helped me clear my head and determine my own path...and he distracted me, when all I could hear in my head was Nataku's incessant demand for revenge.

And he reminded me that all men, even my enemies, have it in them to be honourable.

He looked at me expectantly, and I realised how long I must have been standing there staring at him.

"I asked," he said gently, as if he knew he were interrupting my thoughts, "after the health of pilot 02."

I swallowed."He's all right," I conceded.It was true.I had not seen Duo in person in a long time, but his transmissions were always optimistic, and he had assured me he was recovering from the Oz soldiers' ill treatment of him.

Treize nodded."You are angry," he observed quietly.I winced at the hurt in his voice.I never understood this power I had to wound him; maybe it was because I had so much trouble believing he had real feelings for me.

But why should that be so?Surely he risked as much as I did--even more, for he was a leader of so many devoted souls and I had only Nataku to answer to.Logic told me he must care for me, or he would have taken me once in victory and discarded me.

But he had not.It was my own insecurity that made me doubt him, for he had never given me reason to.To believe I was only a bedmate to him was ludicrous--I, an unpracticed boy whose sexual experience had been limited to the single unwilling consummation of a childhood wedding, I his sworn enemy who, had I been possessed of less honour and more sense, would have ended his life while he slept and taken my own victory.He had never treated me as less than an equal, no matter how inferior I felt.We talked more than we made love.We did not discuss the war we were fighting; it was part of our agreement to keep our soldier-selves separate from the secret life we led.That agreement had included his promise, to disallow the torture and mistreatment of any of us pilots Oz captured.

It had not been a hard thing for him to agree to.He did not want to hurt us--truly, I think he did not ever want to harm anyone.We would not have been foes at all, but for our differing ideas on how peace was to be attained, and who would control it afterward.

So we talked instead of intellectual things--literature, philosophy, the history of man and how it might come into play again--conversations such as I had not had since my youth as a would-be scholar.Treize understood my hunger for knowledge as Meiran--Nataku--never had, and what he had of it he fed me indulgently.

He was older than Meiran had been, though, and wiser--there was no reason for me to ever find a connection between them.Still, there were times when I couldn't help thinking that Treize would have understood giving one's life to defend a bed of flowers.

He was just more ambitious.To Treize, all the earth was a flowerbed, or perhaps a rose garden.

But I had been lost again."_Mon petit dragon_...Wufei...tell me what you are thinking."'Little dragon,' he called me, and perhaps I should have been insulted, but from his lips the words were a caress./His/ dragon...because I was his, as I had never been anyone's.

"I am angry," I told him, but I knew as I spoke them that the words were untrue.So I corrected them, standing stiff and still before him, his shoulders slumped as he perched wearily on the edge of the bed.

"You were weak," I continued, and I thought I saw a twitch at the corner of his lips.It was a word I had a tendency to overuse."You failed to control your soldiers."

"And I have compensated for it," he reminded me."Your friend is free and recovering; those responsible for his treatment have been punished.Even you, _dragon_, must consider that justice has been done?"

"But if you are weak," I blurted suddenly, "what does that make me?"There it was, the heart and soul of all my fears.

Treize caught my hand and drew me, unresisting, close."Wufei," he said softly, his voice tender, his breath warming my skin, "no man is infallible.Being strong does not mean never making a mistake; it does not mean winning every fight.Sometimes strength lies only in the willingness to admit a failure and remedy it."

I did not know if I believed him.Still I let him lead me, allowing myself to be comforted by his acceptance of imperfection.In the main at least he was correct, it would do me no good to cling to an anger I did not wish to feel.Blaming him would make nothing more right than he had already done.

And I believed then, as I still do, that whatever else might be said of him, Treize was a good-hearted man.

His fingers stroked tenderly through my hair, loosing it to fall around my face, and he pressed his cheek into it.A soft exhalation of his breath tickled my ear, a sigh of profound weariness that bordered on despair.Another revelation--it had not occurred to me before that moment that his heart and mind might be as weighted with troubles as my own.I was being selfish--but I was also being young, and he knew that and forgave it in me.

My heart beat faster in my chest, pulsing in my temples as I folded him in my arms, taller than he only because I was still standing.When I had been the one to lose the duel between us, he became to me the stronger, the Alpha in our pack of two.I had been too naïve to realise that in love between equals the responsibilities must be shared, that a time would come when I would be the strong one.But as I struggled to come to terms with his humanity I realised at last that it must be so.I cupped his chin in my fingers, tilting his face up toward my own.

"Treize," I whispered, "I understand.I'm not angry now."

A tired smile curved his lips."I am relieved," he said.His eyes questioned me--he was unsure what I was planning, but then so was I.I planned nothing, I simply /acted/, for once without calculating what every move might bring me, because that is no way to use a love affair.There was a cry of surprise when I seized and kissed him, but I am sure that it came from my own throat.

The ends of my hair tickled my chin, my fingers clenched the crisp fabric of his jacket, even my eyelashes tangled as I kissed him--fervently, hungrily, refusing to let go.I pressed him back onto the bed, revelling in my newfound courage.I had never in my life been wanton--I had never wanted to be--but now I found it was liberating, to surrender to my own desire without consideration for what weakness I might show.Treize had trusted me with his own vulnerability, and at last I was free to do the same.

My sudden behaviour startled him, but his body reacted predictably and he hauled me above him, fumbling with the fastenings of my clothes.I straddled his hips, refusing to free his mouth from mine, as if, now that I had at last admitted how much I wanted him, I was afraid I would no longer hold any attraction for him once I let go.I do not remember how he managed to undress me without disattaching me, but he was always quite competent in such matters, and I was distracted by his touch and the rising fire in my blood.His arms wrapped around me; he gathered me up and surged upward so he was sitting with me on his lap.At last he tore his mouth away, soothing my whimper of loss with a whisper and a kiss, his tongue trailing along the line of my jaw and my neck.His fingers played across my skin, lighting fires along my naked flesh til every nerve was a separate self, crying out for his touch.I pushed ineffectually at his clothes, but already lust had formed a haze across my eyes, and the most I could do was feel the divergence as cloth gave way to sweat-glistened skin.

"Wufei...."His voice was tinted with as much disbelief as desire, and it made the sound of my name on his lips all the sweeter.I pushed forward, tumbling us once again to the mattress, attacking his throat with my tongue.His head fell back and I pressed my advantage, my hands stroking down his bare chest as I crawled between his legs.He had been in uniform; I peeled the tight white trousers from his body while my own quivered and trembled with the need to touch him.

I had him naked at last, and I ran my hands all up and down the length of him, exploring freely places I had once blushed to touch.He sensed, I think, how strange and heady this was for me, and did his best to lie still under my ministrations as I made myself comfortable with the intricacies of his body.But it was impossible to quell the effect we had on each other; indeed I was drunk on it, intoxicated by his scent and the salty taste of his skin, by the urgency in his touch and the smouldering of his azure eyes.

His body was perfect, unmarred by scars like those that marked my own, sculpted as truly as if he had been a statue.Fortunately, a statue he was not.I explored him with my tongue as thoroughly as my hands; the line of his neck and the hard planes of his chest and further yet below.His penis stood free and erect, twitching whenever my hands neared it, and like the wanton I had become I wanted to taste it.Treize let out a groan as my mouth covered it; a wordless moan strangled in a rush of sensation as his hands flew to tangle in my hair.He pressed my head down and I allowed him to, sucking as he arced against me, moving with the untimed gasps that escaped his lips.I toyed with him as I would never have thought myself capable of, teasing him with my tongue and my breath, promising release but ever refusing to deliver it.

He grasped my shoulders and hauled me up, rolling suddenly to pin me beneath him."Wufei--"My name again, flooding my soul, buoying my desire for him.

"Kiss me," I demanded, and with a gasp he obeyed.His body covered mine, our skin slick with shared sweat, our eager erections bumping together in our frenzied movement.I spread my legs wide, and he straightened enough to hook my knees over his shoulders--there was no more discussion; we moved as a strained and desperate pair, our higher intellect scarcely aware of our bodies' tumult.

He began to stretch me.I would have protested the time it took for him to do so, but I knew without speaking that he would not have listened.Though we were not yet joined, our minds, it seemed, had merged, rendering mere words useless and finding poetry in every touch.He would not hurt me, and while my body ached for his presence, I appreciated the care he took with me.

He thrust into me at last, and my body swallowed him.Always before, it had taken time for me to adjust to him inside me, as my eager body forced my errant will into submission.This time there was no such discomfort, or if there was, I never noticed it.This lovemaking was headier than any drug that had ever aided my ancestors in meditation, I was alive with it, every nerve and pore singing the sensual praise of the man who claimed me.

I do not remember how the night ended, save for the flurry of passion and ill-stifled cries.I remember feeling full as I never had before.And I remember his arms around me, holding me close against him long after he had whispered his devotion and surrendered to sleep.He guarded me from my demons, and Nataku, for a night, was silent.

As long as men have told stories and fought battles, they have told of brave warriors who, defeated, swore their lives to the victors.Once I thought such men were weak fools.It was Treize who taught me differently.I am not the sort to be drawn by a body alone; if that was all I sought I would have found a woman.But the spark of an ancient soul and a kindred spirit called to me even while we fought, and his sword at my throat forced me to reassess my evaluation of him.It was the most poetic twist of tragedy, our meeting, for we could never be more than we became--soulmates, lovers, and bitterest foes.

~Owari~


	7. Book II, ch. i

What a tangled web we weave

What a tangled web we weave.... The plot thickens!

What happened between books I and II:

Duo escaped and returned to L2, but never retrieved the Deathscythe--it was finally shot down by Trowa in a move to infiltrate Oz. Trowa is now an officer on Barge, though Lt. Nichol and several others still don't trust him. Heero, Duo and Wufei have all been captured, and Trowa and Heero have brought Zechs--as Milliardo Peacecraft--back to Barge in the Vayeate and Mercurius. Now there are reports of a new Gundam attacking the colonies, and they will be sent out to deal with it. Elsewhere, Relena has taken over the reigns of the Sanq Kingdom and tries to lead the world toward pacifism, and the colonies one by one begin to accept Oz' rule.

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura Nagisa

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:subject to change, but so far:13x5, 11+13, 2x11, 3+4

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book II:The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere

****************

Chapter 1

"As unpreditable as rain clouds, 

striking like thunder and lightning."

_--Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

Officer Trowa Barton of Oz had been given direct and explicit orders by one Lieutenant Nichol.Unless his presence was specifically requested, he was to leave Colonel Une alone.

Naturally, this meant Trowa spent a good portion of his time keeping a discreet eye on her.

Une herself did not seem aware of Nichol's orders.She, unlike her lieutenant, at least gave the appearance of trusting her new young officer.She'd already selected him as the pilot of the Vayeate, a new experimental mobile suit built by the same engineers who had designed the original Gundams.Trowa wondered if that was the real cause of Nichol's animosity toward him--it was clear the lieutenant had been accustomed to being Une's favourite, and now he was being supplanted by an upstart pilot.

"Officer Barton."The greeting was low and warm and a little pained, and he turned to see the Lady of Fortress Barge sagging against the cool metal wall of the bulkhead."Looking after me again?"

Trowa, as always in control of his impulses, did not show his surprise that she had been aware he was monitoring her."I just wanted to make sure you were all right," he temporised.

She grimaced, her fingers pressed against her belly."A diet of space rations getting the better of me at last.Nothing fatal, I'm afraid, just miserable."She forced a wry smile through the wince of pain."If you're so concerned for my welfare, you could be useful and help me back to my quarters."

"Of course."Trowa, knowing an opportunity when one bit him on the nose, slipped an arm around her shoulders and let her lean against him.They were the same height, something he had not realised before but noticed now as he supported her.She was ill, that much was certain; several times she doubled over in pain, and they had to wait before she could walk again.

She punched in the code to unlock her quarters and the door slid open.Trowa helped her inside and eased her onto the bed, taking advantage of her distraction to memorise the layout and details of the room."Is there anything else I can do for you?" he offered, stalling."Perhaps call for Dr. Blythe?"

Une shook her head, shrugging out of her jacket and taking a long, silent moment to let her queasy stomach settle."That's not necessary," she said at last."But stay here.I've been meaning to talk to you alone for some time, Officer Barton.This is as good an opportunity as any."

Trowa stiffened, though the motion was barely visible."What did you want to discuss?"

"Your mission," she answered, and just as imperceptibly he relaxed.Of course.There had been reports of a new Gundam, and Trowa was to take the Vayeate, with Heero in the Mercurius and a squad of mobile dolls, to eliminate the problem.Trowa's intuition, and every instinct he had, told him Quatre was the pilot of the new Gundam, and he had been planning accordingly.

But when Une gazed up at him with an uncanny and disconcerting expectance in her eyes, she did not speak of mission profiles and plans for adaptation.

"A boy falls from the sky," she said softly, "and into my hands.No-one has ever seen him before.He has no training...and yet he pilots a mobile suit better than anyone since Lieutenant Noin.All this is odd enough.And yet, the strangest piece of this puzzle:he bears the name, but not the face, of a man I know to be dead--a man whose memory I would give anything to be rid of."

It was only honed instinct at that moment that kept Trowa's brain whirling through the possibilities for escape.//Did she know the real Trowa Barton?//It was one possibility the pilot of Gundam Heavyarms had never considered, though in retrospect he realised he should have.But if she had known all along that he was not who he claimed, why had she not arrested him already?Why was she not doing so now?It was that thought that kept him from drawing his weapon and shooting her at once; a curiousity about her purposes in revealing this knowledge to him now.

She seemed aware of his turmoil, though she made no note of it."Were you truly Trowa Barton," she continued simply, "I would never have allowed you onto Fortress Barge.So I believe what Lieutenant Nichol only suspects--that you are one of the Gundam pilots.Zero-three, I think."

"And yet you kept me here," Trowa observed, his questioning barely an inflection in his soft monotone.

She nodded."I did.Don't worry, Gundam pilot.We will use each other as well as we can, you and I, and then we will part ways.For now our goals are the same, and there is no reason for fighting."

"My mission is to destroy Oz," Trowa reminded her.

"Is it?"Une challenged, standing."Or is it to protect the colonies?Treize says you Gundam pilots are honourable--he says that without knowing what I do, without knowing what Operation Meteor was supposed to be.With all that I know, and with all I have seen you do, I think he is right."

"If our battles before this had been tests," she continued, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper, "you would have passed them all.I know you will do what is right.But the colonies have accepted Oz now--they do not want the Gundams, or need them.There will be peace, so how can you believe you have not won?"

"Oz is manipulating the colonies, Lady," Trowa said stiffly, "and so are you.I've watched you charm them, but one oppressor is not a good replacement for another."

"How are we oppressing them?" Une snapped.It surprised Trowa, but her pique seemed genuine."Communication is now not only permitted between colonies and earth, but encouraged.The Sanq kingdom leads the rest of the world toward pacifism.The enemy now is the Romafeller Foundation and the mobile dolls, it is not Oz or Mister Treize."

She sighed, stepping closer as Trowa tried to sort out his thoughts."One more thing," she said, leaning close."It is important.I know what you are thinking.I know you believe you are riding out to meet a comrade tomorrow, that the pilot of this new Gundam is your old friend zero-four.You think that you will join forces and the three of you will return to destroy Oz."

"Is that what you would do?" Trowa asked acidly.

She ignored his question."Things will not work out the way you've planned," she informed him."I think I know what influences him, what has made him attack the colonies--I, more than anyone, recognise the signs.It is a system that warps the mind--it feeds on sorrow and pain until it has driven its pilot far past controlling.You will serve the colonies better if you destroy the new Gundam--do whatever you will with the pilot."

"You sound like a fortune-teller, not a military commander," Trowa accused.

Une smiled bitterly."In that case, you should listen even more carefully--for a long time, it was those whose minds were not quite whole who had that kind of gift.But if it puts you more at ease, I will tell you this is not divination.It is only my past, coming back to haunt me, and I will do what good I can with it."

Trowa shook his head, wondering."You know all this, yet you're still going to send me out in the Vayeate tomorrow."

She nodded."I told you, we are not necessarily working at cross-purposes now.As for the new Gundam...you'll see soon enough what I mean, and you will do what is right."

"I will do what must be done," Trowa affirmed stiffly.

"I know."She pressed the button to slide open the door.It was a dismissal."One last thing, Officer Barton--perhaps you should go down to holding and check on the prisoners, before you return to duty."  
  


If anyone had been present who was familiar with the imperceptible changes in Trowa's expression, they would have noticed him scarcely able to contain his disbelief.

****

"We're leaving as scheduled," Trowa told 'the prisoners,' his expression vague."Colonel Une believes the new Gundam is piloted by zero-four, but that the Gundam itself may be out of control."

"But why would Qu--zero-four be attacking colonies?" Duo countered."We just don't do that kind of thing!"He was sprawled on his back on the floor in the middle of the holding cell.

Trowa shrugged."Does it matter?We'll...deal with the target."

"Trowa..." Heero said softly.He recognised, if no-one else did, the strain in his companion's voice when he spoke of eliminating /this/ target.

"I said we'd deal with it."Trowa snapped, his voice cold.

"Wish you'd take me along instead of him," Duo grumbled, rolling to his feet."I'm a better pilot that zero-one over there any day!And," he added meaningfully, "I've got my Deathscythe to avenge."

"Which is why you're not going anywhere," Trowa said dryly.Duo rolled his eyes.

"Nobody around here can take a joke, you know?Hey--"Without warning, he grabbed Trowa by the shoulder and hauled him close.

Trowa's fist landed solidly in Duo's gut, and the longhaired pilot doubled over, clutching at his stomach."Shit!What, you thought I was attacking you or something?Jesus /Christ/--"He subsided into aggravated mumbling, huddled on the floor as he tried to catch his breath.

Trowa locked eyes with Heero."Tomorrow morning," he repeated, striding out the door and locking it behind him.

Duo forced open one eye."I was just givin' him some friendly advice...this place is bad for my health."

Wufei spoke up softly from where he sat cross-legged in the corner."Was there a point to all that, or should we assume that he's no longer on our side?"

Duo snorted."Him?Naw, that's a guy we /can/ trust.After all, he left us a present."Straightening, he held up a palm-sized projector unit, twirling it between his fingers."Shall we take a look?"

As the pilots crowded around their makeshift screen, Trowa shot a last glance inside the cell.Their course of action had seemed so clear this morning; now he wasn't sure how things were going to unfold.

He walked away with Duo's hasty words echoing in his mind, whispered when their faces had been close enough to hide.

//Don't be too hard on her, Trowa.She's a better person than you think.//

//And get me the hell out of here soon, would ya?//

*****

Left alone in her quarters at last, Une sank into the stiff-backed chair at her desk.She still felt sick, but only in flashes.It would be all right, she was visiting another colony soon--solid ground beneath her feet and a genuine meal would do wonders, she was certain.

Not that it could all be blamed on a diet of space rations.She had a feeling part of her supposed illness was anxiety, and that was what kept her from calling Nathan.She didn't want to discuss this with anyone, not even him.The new Trowa Barton was as close as Une wanted to get to her past this day.

Treize had once told her that time moved in cycles, that the civilisations of men were doomed to repeat the same mistakes of their predecessors.She wondered if it worked on a smaller scale, as well--if the world could come full-circle in her lifetime alone.

She had read the reports of the new Gundam's attacks, and recognised the signs.

She had noticed the reluctant softening of her officer-pilot's eyes when they had discussed zero-four.

And she knew, deep in her gut, past the part where all her own secrets were kept safe, that this battle would not go as any of them had planned.

//Please, be strong.// A prayer, borne on the wings of thought, to an enemy she had never met.//Be stronger than I was. //

//Don't let it all fall apart now.//

*****

Next time:More on Une's connection to the Zero system, Project Meteor, and the original Trowa Barton.Duo and Wufei trade some interesting secrets.


	8. Book II, ch. ii

Toy Soldiers

Flashback chapter this time....

****************

Book II:The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere

****************

Chapter Two

"Where forces overwhelm can be like a hard rock cast onto eggs--through contrasts in strength."

--_Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

**A.C. 193**

The rhythmic clack of Une's bootheels echoed through the empty corridor.Ahead, the fierce African sun beat through the reinforced glass of theflight-deck door.She was early, she'd planned it that way, so that no-one else would be at the site while she greeted her new fighting companion alone.

She let the door close behind her and strode onto the tarmac, shrugging out of her jacket and draping it over her arm.It was too hot, and as this undertaking redefined the word 'classified,' it wouldn't really matter if she was out of uniform.They were hiding in a long-unused base in the Nairobi desert for a reason, after all, and if the Alliance top brass found out about them, they'd have bigger things to worry about than a little breach of dress code.

Like the giant mobile suit standing at solemn attention on the tarmac to greet her.One-quarter again larger than any of the suits the Alliance soldiers used, it still managed to look unassuming in its mottled-brown camouflage paint.

"So this is it.What do you think of her?" A soft, feminine voice interrupted Une's thoughts.

"Valkyrie...impressive," she confirmed, turning to greet the slight, russet-tressed woman who greeted her."Leia.You're early."

The young woman nodded."I am...I knew you'd be out here before anyone else."She was in tan slacks and a light blue t-shirt, her own lab coat bunched up under her arm.Apparently she thought it was too hot for uniforms as well.

"And you were looking for me," Une said.Leia nodded confirmation."What's the matter?"

The redhead's smooth face was troubled, but she avoided the question."I'm still impressed we finished her, really.I know the little data I brought wasn't much help--it makes me wonder who Treize had to sleep with to get the plans from the Tallgeese."

Une coughed delicately."Treize is a married man," she reminded her companion wryly."If anyone's honour was compromised getting that data, I expect it would have been Zechs."

"Hm."Leia cocked her head, considering."Can't say I wouldn't enjoy being the one who--"

"And /you/," Une interrupted mildly, "are a married woman as well.In case you forgot."

"Not for a minute," the other answered honestly."Truthfully, Nicole--the way the two of them act together, as close as they are--if I didn't have evidence to the contrary, I would've thought they were together."

Une rolled her eyes."That's only because you've never seen Zechs when he gets around Lucrezia Noin.He's only a few months younger than I am, but he may as well be twelve and pulling on her pigtails.If she had any."

Leia laughed."That's your old roommate, right?I hear the Academy likes to pair child prodigies together whenever possible."

"That's the one."Une shrugged diffidently; she had mixed feelings concerning the Lake Victoria Academy's other prize pilot."It's sad really--she's the best thing to happen to the Alliance in an age, but she holds back on purpose so Zechs gets rated higher.And he /knows/ she does it, too--so why bother?"

"If it's working for her, who cares?" Leia countered playfully."Though I can't see /you/ hiding your talent for any man's affection, Nic."

Une snorted."And look where it's got me so far.I've only ever been interested in one anyway, and he's married to you."

The older girl's face fell, though she did her best to conceal it."Yes, I know."Gamely she tried to bring their conversation back to its light-hearted tone."You made it sound like Zechs is taken, but there's still Otto...or Nathan.He's a sweetheart."

"And I've known him since I was four," Une pointed out dryly."It's hard to think romantically about someone who you /know/ used to wear superhero underwear and eat Play-doh."She sighed, resting a hand against the cold hard metal of the Valkyrie's leg, as if she were drawing strength from it.

"I want to hate you, you know," she confessed quietly."But I can't."

"I'm glad," said Leia, just as softly."Because I'd really like us to be friends."

Une forced a wan smile."Just keep your slimy brother away from me.He scares the shit out of me."

Leia nodded."I know.I told him to leave you alone, but I don't know if he listened.I couldn't tell him I knew about his trying to recruit you for Operation Meteor, so I'm afraid he thinks I just meant stay away from you romantically."

One dark eyebrow arched gracefully over a hazel eye."Leia, there is nothing /romantic/ about Trowa.Nothing.Slimy, yes.Scary as shit, yes.But not romantic.You of all people should be able to tell the difference, you're married to Treize."

A blush suffused the other woman's cheek, a smile curving her lips involuntarily."True.But look at it this way--if he /hadn't/ tried to recruit you to pilot Heavyarms, we would never have known what my family was planning."

Une frowned."Which brings me to a question...Leia, does /Treize/ know what your family is planning?Have you told him?"

She shook her head, her eyes fixed momentarily on her feet."No.I couldn't--I didn't know how to bring it up...especially after I'd already told him I'd found the research on my own in the lab."

The pieces fell into place only too quickly for Une."Let me guess...he was so proud of you for it that you couldn't bear to shatter his illusions about being married to the earthsphere's greatest physicist."

Leia tossed her hair jauntily."I /am/ the earthsphere's greatest physicist," she teased, winking, but almost immediately her expression turned serious again."You're brave, Nicole.Have I told you that?"

Une blushed, scuffing at the melting ground with the toe of her over-polished boot."Not brave, just stupid.Besides, there's nothing to worry about, right?I'm trusting you didn't build me something that's going to fall apart?"

"I didn't build it," the scientist reminded her mildly."But that's not what I mean.The details on the cockpit system were a bit sketchy; I had to design a lot of it myself."

"If you're trying to tell me it's not finished after all--"Une began, and Leia shook her head.

"No, that's not it.It's just...complicated.I took the early code from the Tallgeese, but I had to modify it a bit.You'll see when you start.You'll manage it fine."

"That's the plan."Une broke off the conversation to raise one arm in greeting as the deck-door swung open and a trio of men, all tall, graceful and resplendant in Specials uniforms, strode out to join them.

"She is impressive, isn't she?" Treize Khushrenada gazed up the solid metal body of the Valkyrie with approval."Well done, Zechs; you and Otto have outdone yourselves."

Zechs Merquise, a head shorter but more distinctive, if only because of the silver helmet he was never seen without, gave an indifferent shrug."We just put the parts together, sir.Leia and Nicole have the hard parts."

Treize smiled easily."Hopefully not too hard."From somewhere within the folds of his jacket--how was it, Une wondered, that he didn't seem to feel the heat as the rest of them did?--he drew out a bottle of champagne."For a christening," he explained, "and a toast all in one.If you all swear never to tell another living soul you saw me drinking straight from the bottle."

"Who, us?" Nathan Blythe asked innocently, winking at Une from where he stood behind the others.Superhero underwear notwithstanding, her childhood playmate had grown up to be quite handsome, with perpetually-tousled dark hair and soft doe-brown eyes that would have been intoxicating on anyone, man or woman.He was the only civilian among them, having decided that the medical profession was his one true calling."Healing people suits me better than hurting them," he had told Une in confidence before they had parted ways for their respective vocations.

Zechs had not been a part of their circle until he was almost ten, when he came to live under the care of one of the Khushrenada cousins.Treize' ancestors, it seemed, had felt the need to make sure their family line was in absolutely no danger of dying out, if only by collateral means.And it was Treize who had introduced Zechs to a younger Nathan and Nicole--presumably so he, already a teenager, would be spared having to act as playmate to the younger set.But they had all grown into each other in time.Nicole had grown into Treize more than he ever meant her to.She had been sixteen--that magical age when princesses are supposed to be whisked off into the sunset by their own Prince Charming--when her Prince Charming was married to a colony scientist who just happened to be heiress to a fortune far greater than Une's comparitably humble endowment.Now he had an adorable young daughter and a wife he adored, and seemed completely happy that way.

"Here."Zechs pressed the bottle into her hands and she tilted it back for a drink.Champagne was too dry for her taste, but she would never have admitted it.So she just drank, and passed the bottle on to Leia.

"To success!"Treize said, lifting the bottle when it made its way to him again."And to secrets, and to those we trust enough to keep them."

They all chorused their agreement, and Treize held out his hands."Leia...Nic...would you like to do the honours?"

Two slender women's hands grasped the neck of the bottle."On three?" Leia asked, and Une nodded."One..."

"Two..." Une whispered.

"Three!" they called in unison, smashing the bottle against the monstrous mobile suit's leg.Glass shattered and champagne sprayed everwhere, spotting Une's white uniform pants and Leia's t-shirt.

The Valkyrie was born.

****

"What the--Nic, what's going on?"Zechs punched frantically at the laptop keys, scowling at the rows of data scrolling down the screen."Leia!What the hell do these numbers mean?"

Treize seized control of the microphone, calling into it desperately."Nicole!Are you all right?"

In answer, Une's shrill scream scraped through the tiny speaker, thick with a pain that wrenched at his heart.Something was going wrong--none of them knew what, but it was fast becoming clear that if they didn't somehow extricate her from the Valkyrie, his prize pilot and oldest friend was going to die in her cockpit.

The giant mech, bursting out of her pilot's control, almost toppled to the ground, keeping herself aright only at the last moment by a quick pulse of one vernier engine.Already there was considerable structural damage to the building itself where she had smashed into it, and the smoking remains of one wall was all that was left after one blast of the Valkyrie's main weapon.

In the cockpit, Une yanked at the controls, cursing madly under her breath, trying to drag the mechanical beast into submission.But it beat at her mind, pounding incessantly in her temples til its pulse merged with her heartbeat and drew her inside it.It was quieter there, but not peaceful--it was like the eye of a hurricane, a cold centre surrounded by howling, unconquerable winds.

Valkyrie ripped her open and dove through her exposed self, stripping her mind of all its secrets, its fears, its hidden desires.It steeped them in chaos, warped them with rage, and fed them back into her, til its molten ire coursed through her blood and beat in her ears.

//Kill,// it told her.//Annihilate!Destroy!//Its urge was overwhelming, impossible to fight, though her soul, held prisoner in her body, strained against it with all its fading strength.

"Nicole!"Her name, screamed at her from outside--her friends.Nathan.Zechs./Treize/.She had to protect Treize, no matter what.If it meant her own life, or the destruction of the Valkyrie, or the absolute failure of their secret project--the mobile suit /knew/ what was most important to her, and seized on it, making her secret goal its own.

She was losing control.Her innermost self was still being ripped away, all her thoughts used to fuel the Valkyrie's frenzy of destruction.The suit was alive, and it was war itself, just as the battle maiden it was named for.It knew too much about her.She was guiding it, however unwillingly, and it had already beaten her.

"Nicole!Shut it down--"Leia had run toward her, away from the relative shelter of the wall, and was screaming numbers and code at her that Une could no longer understand.She tried to yell to her, to make her get back, get away, out of reach of the psychotic machine that knew only hatred, and /knew/ somehow that the scientist was the chief obstacle between her and Treize--

"Leia!Get out of the way!"Treize was running toward his wife, but Valkyrie was already in motion.A shriek of defiance, of despair, ripped from Une's throat as she watched the skyline spinning on her viewscreen.She heaved desperately at the controls, every part of her conscious self pushing at the system dominating her mind.

The Valkyrie landed on its side with a crash.Une's voice broke--and so did her mind.She felt the /crack/, the sudden absence of a significant part of herself, and light swam dizzily in front of her eyes as they sunk closed.

But she could hear, even as the darkness swept in to claim her, Treize' heartbroken sobbing of Leia's name.

****


	9. Book II, ch. iii

Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura Nagisa

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:subject to change, but so far:13x5, 11+13, 2x11, 3x4

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book II:The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere

****************

Chapter Three:

"Warriors when irretrievably trapped will be fearless, in inextricable positions will be resolute."

--_Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

"Colonel Une, you're making a mistake!"

She sighed.She was tired of Tsuberov, tired of his presence, his greasy hair, his musty smell and arrogant tone.//_How much easier it would be to arrange an accident...Treize would forgive me, I'm sure.He hates the man as much as I do_.//

"I've given an order," she reminded the engineer calmly.

"You've sent a Gundam pilot out in our best mobile suit," he countered acidly."You should have had them all executed by now, and used the mobile dolls!"

"Those associated with the Gundams are still valuable to me!" Une snapped back."We will continue to use the dolls to defend the lunar base. I'm sure you're as aware of Commander Treize' position on them as I am.We are using the Vayeate and Mercurius, and that is final."

He snorted derisively."You're bringing the trouble on yourself," he predicted, grumbling.

"Jealous?" she asked, a little too sweetly."That's not something to be proud of, Tsuberov."

She spun on her heel, leaving him behind sputtering complaints at the empty air as she returned to Fortress Barge.//_Maybe he's right.Maybe we should send the dolls--if that new Gundam uses the same system as the Valkyrie, it would wipe them all out in a matter of seconds, and we wouldn't have to worry about them anymore._//It was an uncharitable thought, but she allowed herself to enjoy it for a while before discarding it to the back of her mind.There was very little good that could come out of this encounter between Trowa, zero-one, and the new Gundam.

Trowa.That had been interesting.So he was pilot zero-three...the Heavyarms.The suit that would have been hers, had she accepted his namesake's offer to help him conquer the earth.She wondered where it was now.Fate had a twisted sense of humour indeed, and its lines tangled more than was comfortable.

In essence it was a simple enough situation.Une trusted the Gundam pilots to protect the colonies more than she trusted Tsuberov with a chance to show off his toys.The pilots at least were human.

She just worried about the strange, soft look she'd seen in her newest officer's green eyes.

//_I tried to warn you, this will not go as planned.I wonder, will you believe me?_//

****

Trowa Barton settled into the carrier that would transport himself and Heero to the location of the new Gundam, and their battle.

And Quatre.

His notorious calm threatened to break at the sound of that name, his cold facade crumbling a little as his heart pounded harder against it.He was confused, uncertain, especially in light of Une's strange confession--but none of that would matter soon.He and Heero would join with Quatre,who would lead them to rescue the others and defeat Oz.All would be clear, because he was never so sure of anything as when Sandrock's pilot was near.

//_Quatre..._//

He fumbled for a moment in his pocket--he was alone, and no-one would notice a small addition to his costume.It was a ring, very simple and plain and ordinary, its cheap gilt tarnished by repeated wear, so that it tended to turn his skin green beneath it.He rubbed his fingertip along its dulled surface, remembering the day Quatre had given it to him.

It had been raining in San Francisco that night, the fog rolling in from the sea, the air echoing with the ghostly cries of unseen gulls.They had alternated between blushing, and giggling, and giddy, exhilarating kisses.He had never felt so alive.

He'd known when he first met the boy that he was special.He'd have to be, or else brazenly stupid, to surrender to Trowa a fight he otherwise would have won.Trowa was well aware his Heavyarms, in that first encounter, was almost out of ammunition, and Quatre was backed up by his Maguanac corps.But that surrender to each other was only the first of many.Everything about Quatre was a whirlwind to Trowa, whisking him away to emotions he'd never dreamed he could experience.

And in the space of a night, he'd promised his life.It was easily the most absurd, spontaneous thing he'd ever done.With a sense of profound disbelief he remembered their first frenzied lovemaking; they fell into each other without consultation or forethought, yet it was the only time he could remember where afterglow had faded and left not regret, but contentment.It was easy, then, to grant Quatre what he asked for when he laughingly, nervously requested his oath.

Their mission was for morning, so they had little time.It was already after the time any reputable shop had closed.They had gone out to find the fences and pawnshops instead, desperate to find some token they could both take with them, both aware it could be their last opportunity.Quatre said it would be like the favours ancient champions wore into battle.Since then, Trowa had never fought without it.

The whir of the engines soothed him, and he slipped into dreams of silky blonde hair and bright, vivid aqua eyes.

****

Beep.

Dark, dazed green eyes flickered open, confused.

Beep.

The data scrolling down the screen startled him into wakefulness.//_What--Quatre--_//

"Are we there already?" Heero's sleepy voice sounded over the comm unit."That was fast."

"That's not it."Trowa's fingers danced over the keypad, calling up what little information Une had to send him."Our destination just changed--we were too late to save that colony."

"What?"Heero shook off sleep in favour of disbelief.

"It's destroyed," Trowa repeated, wondering if his companion could detect the faint tremble in his voice."We'll--we'll leave behind the carrier, Heero, and take the mobile suits out alone."

Heero only nodded."Was it him?"

"Our mission is only to determine how powerful the Gundam is."Trowa went on as if he hadn't heard."We'll fight only if necessary.But it's Quatre we're up against, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about."Even to his own ears, he sounded as if he were trying to reassure himself.

"Trowa...."Heero frowned, his gaze darkening as if he knew more about his fellow pilot's thoughts than he let on."Be cautious.Something's not right."

//_Things will not work out the way you've planned._//Une's words echoed in Trowa's mind, but he twisted the ring on his finger and forced them away."What's the matter?"

"Don't forget," Heero commanded softly, "he just destroyed a colony."

Trowa bowed his head, trying to ignore the chill than shivered down his spine as he gave the order for Heero to investigate alone.

//_Quatre...what are you doing?_//

****

"My Deathscythe looks pretty cool, dontcha think?"Duo flipped through the plans for his upgraded Gundam yet one more time."One month, they said, and it'll be all done.Wow--they've done some serious work on yours, too, Wufei."

The Chinese pilot nodded.He'd been calm through the entire ordeal--then again, he was always calm--but Duo was sure he noticed a gleam of excitement in those dark eyes.Wufei was just as infatuated with his Gundam as any of the rest of them.

"Now that Quatre's back, we'll be busy again," he continued with a satisfied grin."It's about time."

Wufei ducked his head, dropping his gaze from Duo's."I have no intention of considering an unconfirmed Gundam as an ally of ours."

"What do you mean?"Duo gnawed at his lower lip, forgetting for a moment the diagrams on the projection screen."He's defeating Oz' forces, right?That makes him on our side."

Wufei glanced up at him again, his expression serious."Maybe so."He sighed, resting back against the wall."But I have a bad feeling about this."

The words had no sooner left his lips than silence assaulted them--not merely the absence of speech or noise, but rather of background--their own breathing was abruptly the /only/ thing they could hear.The whir of engines, of generators, the hum and buzz that indicates a place is alive--these were abruptly missing from the cell.

Dark eyes met violet, both wide in disbelief.

"The life support systems," Wufei said flatly.

"No way!No fucking way!"Duo launched himself upright, throwing his entire body at the solid metal door.It vibrated as he slammed against it, and the force of it echoed through the cell and probably the hallway outside, before he slumped onto the floor."HEY!SOMEBODY TURN THE AIR BACK ON!"His voice caught mid-scream; he pushed himself upright along the wall and stumbled back to where Wufei sat calmly clicking the projector from slide to slide.

"I don't believe it.What a lameass way to get rid of prisoners--that is just so far beneath low."He sighed, slumping forward, completely ignoring the diagrams of his beloved Deathscythe on the wall."I wish I could have gone out to battle today instead of Heero.I wish--God, Wufei, there are at least a million things I wish I could have done differently, I can't even list them all."

"Stay calm," the Chinese boy advised, "if you want to stay alive a little longer.We've only got so much air, don't waste it."

"Stay calm?How the fuck?Enlighten me, please!"Duo seized Wufei by the shoulders and spun him around, shaking him violently."How the hell can you stay so goddamn composed about this whole thing?Don't you even care that Oz is suffocating us to death?"

"Duo," Wufei said, his voice barely above a whisper, "let go."

One flash of indescribable pain in those dark eyes and the pieces fell into place for Duo too suddenly even to realise they had done so.//_...He's in love with one of you._//Nicole's words, spoken in such hurt, and so quickly forgotten--he hadn't given them thought since he left her.

Of course, he tried not to think about most of that night, unless he had to.He didn't need the guilt.

He dropped his hands, mumbling an apology under his breath and lying back to sprawl on the floor, at least as much as a sprawl could be accomplished in cuffs."Fine, fine...you be all stoic then.I'm gonna throw in the towel.What a lame way to go!"He was whining, and he knew it, but if it was his last half-hour left alive, he figured he could spend it talking if he wanted to."I don't fucking believe they'd do this to us!Well--at least not to /you/!"

Wufei spun abruptly to stare defiantly down at him."What do you mean by that?"

Duo swallowed, reminding himself--despite the anger on the other pilot's face--that they were going to die soon anyway, and if it came down to it, he'd rather have Wufei murder him than just quietly waste away from lack of oxygen.

"Aren't you the one Treize is in love with?" he blurted.

To his complete astonishment, Wufei did not, as anticipated, attack him.Rather, it was as if he wilted, his unbreakable calm fading through his feet to leave a hurt, frightened teenage boy.Duo found this Wufei easier to identify with, but a bit disconcerting as well.

"How did you know?"

Duo blinked, rolling himself up til he was sitting again."N--Lady Une told me."A wry, regretful smile twisted his features."I was here being nursed back to health when he told her.She...was a bit upset."

Wufei merely nodded, as if it didn't really matter anyway."Ah."

//_And then, of course, I gave her even more reason to be upset.No wonder she's ready to off me now without so much as an execution order._//

"Know what, Wufei?This is probably my fault after all, because I am a class-A, award-winning asshole," he confessed bitterly."And if I'm right, then I'm sorry to have caught you in it."

Dark eyes flickered up at him, curious."What do you mean?"

And Duo, because the end of one's life is a perfect time for confessions anyway, told him."So I left," he finished lamely, after the story had fallen more or less completely from his lips."Left a note about how I figured she'd have done the same thing in my place, and took off.If I were her, I'd want to kill me too."

Wufei curled around himself, resting his chin on his knees."Not necessarily," he said after a moment."One thing I've learned about these people--and it sounds like you have, too--they may be enemies, but they're not necessarily /bad/...fundamentally, I mean.You said she'd understand your leaving, because it was part of a war.So, having us killed is just part of the same war.Sure, it could be revenge on you--it could also be to get rid of me, as Treize' lover.Or it could be neither one...only that we're two Gundam pilots, and that makes us the enemy."

"I guess you're right," Duo agreed, flopping back onto the floor at last."It makes sense and all.I just wish I had a chance to explain, or something."A sigh."This is a really stupid thing to be worried about at a time like this, isn't it?"

Wufei shrugged."I've always understood that in the face of death, men dwell on what is secretly most important to them.Maybe you should consider that."

Duo rolled his eyes heavenward."Like it's gonna do any good.I'm about to stop breathing, and so are you."

"I haven't yet," Wufei pointed out softly.

A sad, admiring smile turned Duo's lips upward."You never give up, do you?"

The Shenlong pilot shook his head."No," he answered."Not as long as I'm alive."

****


	10. Book II, ch. iv

Told you I'd get back into writing once I had homework to procrastinate on

Told you I'd get back into writing once I had homework to procrastinate on.*grin*Sorry for the long delay in getting any of my fics updated...we all need time off..!Anyways, enjoy!

Ash

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura Nagisa

disclaimer:I don't own GW.Surprise, surprise.

pairings:subject to change, but so far:13x5, 11+13, 2x11, 3x4

warnings/notes:AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book II:The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere

****************

Chapter Four:

"Following them in death and life, the people will not betray them."

--_Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

**A.C. 193**

"How is she?"Nathan looked tired, Treize noted, as the young doctor turned to answer his query.

"Treize."His voice was thin with exhaustion as well, and the darkness under his eyes was caused by more than the dim, yellow hospital lights."I hardly know what to tell you.Physically she'll be all right; the Valkyrie's cockpit is indestructible.But her mind...."He faltered, unsure how to proceed, sinking onto the bench that lined the cold hallway."It's hard to explain.She's feeling guilty, that's part of it."

"She has no reason to."Treize sat down next to him, retrieving a sheaf of folded papers from his sleeve and passing them over."Readouts from the Valkyrie...that cockpit system was unbelievable.It's not Nic's fault she lost control of it.Look—it's designed to heighten the physiological responses of the pilot far past what any of us are used to.I don't know how Leia did it, but it takes commands from the subconscious, rather than the conscious brain, because it's faster.There's not a pilot in the Alliance who could have handled it."

Nathan didn't even glance at the papers, just pressed them back into Treize' hand."That fits with what she managed to tell me.She said it was pulling its commands from 'under her mind.'That's why she feels so guilt-ridden, Treize...we all overestimated her strength, and underestimated her love."

"Love?"Treize' stomach churned—with his young wife so recently dead, it was not a word he wanted to hear.Still, he had to ask, had to understand."I don't quite—"

"Nicole's in love with you."If Nathan was irritated at having to spell it out so clearly, he kept it to himself."Surely you knew that, Treize, you've been her one and only since we were kids."

Treize rubbed rough fingertips against his aching temples."I knew she felt that way once, of course.I'm not blind—but even you just said, that was when we were children.I had no idea she felt the same way now...."

"You're a fool." Nathan's words held no malice, only a sad, weary resignation, and Treize found himself nodding silent agreement."It's when we're children that our love is fiercest...most irrational.God, Treize, think about it!Remember how we all were?She never wanted to be a soldier til you filled her head with how glorious battle was.Then you told her you were going to be a general, and she could be your best pilot.Everything she's done in her life since has been because of you—how could you not see it?"

Treize' head was throbbing, and his heart didn't feel much better."Yes, I remember—but she was nine and I was twelve!People grow up, and change, we've all changed—"

"Not as much as you think," the young doctor interrupted."Look closely at all of us, Treize...match it with your memories...see how much of all of us was shaped by each other."He slumped back against the bench, his eyes closed in exhaustion, his head tilted back."But not right now.You're hurting too, I know that. Listen...maybe this isn't a good time for you to be here.Wait til you've had more time...."

"I told you," Treize said coldly, "I /do not/ blame Nicole.I've just lost my wife, Nathan—and whatever else is going on here, Nic's still my oldest friend.I need to see her."

"And then?"Nathan returned, his eyes snapping open before he wilted again."Lord.I'm sorry, I am.I just don't want to have you go in there and undo everything I've been working so hard for since she woke up...the wrong word and you'll ruin all her chances for ever being right again."

"Then tell me what to say."Treize leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as if he could barely manage to hold up his own body."I don't want to do anything that will hurt her, I swear...I just need to see with my own eyes that she's alive, don't you understand that at least?"

Nathan nodded once, slowly, sadly."Just remember that she really does think it's all her fault.I know you're sad as hell, but you have to hide that from her or she'll blame herself for it."

Treize nodded."There is another thing.When she's able, I want her to come to the Specials with me."

Nathan's brown eyes flashed."What if she's not cut out for soldiering anymore?You know she'll go anyway, just to be with you, and then what will you accomplish?"

"I'll be able to keep her with me, and watch out for her!"Treize snapped, weariness and sorrow and anger coalescing into The Khushrenada Presence without his even willing it.

Nathan's lips tightened into a thin, hard line."Go see her first, before you make that decision.And if she goes, I'm coming too."

"But you're not finished yet," Treize said, startled."If Nicole's not meant to be a soldier, Nathan, you're even less so."

"You're right."He knew better than to let the words of agreement fool him; Nathan Blythe could be as stubborn as he could, and just as agreeable about it."So I won't be going into research anytime soon, I'll take a demotion to field surgeon.I'm good enough for /that/ now."The smaller man's face turned up til dark brown eyes met blue."I'm not leaving her alone, Treize.I've known Nic as long as you have; she's like a sister to me.And like any good brother, I won't let anyone—not even you, sir—injure her."

Treize sighed."So be it," he agreed. "Now let me see her."

****

He was not prepared, as he eased open her hospital room door.Nathan's stilted explanations had left him with little real idea of what to expect, but he had imagined her wounded, on death's doorstep perhaps, faded and small in the crisp hospital sheets.

But she was seated instead in the bedside chair, having made the instrument cart into a makeshift dressing-table.Her back was straight, her posture proud, and her eyes so uncomfortably hard.

She turned to greet him as he entered."Your Excellency," she said calmly.

Treize stopped in near-shock, his fingers clenching around his bouquet of get-well roses until the thorns pierced his hands.Nicole Une never called him Excellency, unless it was a formal occasion with lots of people watching, and sometimes not even then.She called him Treize. He'd been about to call out her name as well, but intuition made him temporise."My lady."

She inclined her head, reaching one long, graceful arm toward him.Abruptly he felt, instead of an officer and diplomat and all the things he was, like an awkward, undergrown boy prancing inexpertly through the ceremonial details of some ridiculous pageant.He bowed a little, passing the roses into her hand, and she smiled over the tops of them as she cradled them to her chest.

"Thank you for coming to see me," she said—still so stilted and formal and unfamiliar."I know you have worries enough of your own without sharing in mine."

"It was no trouble, Lady."Finding his stride at last, Treize found the words fell from his tongue as easily as ever."A poor friend I would be if I did not."

"Oh, but a poor friend I was, to have caused you such pain."He thought he saw a flicker of the old Nicole in her eyes, for only a moment, despite the hard formality, and he grasped for it.

"Nic—"

"Don't call me that."Her eyes shuttered again, her faint smile fading, and Treize winced."I am not Nicole.I am Lady Une."

"I'm afraid I shall miss Nicole," Treize said softly."She was my friend, you know."

"She was a weak little fool!"the Lady snapped, throwing the roses onto the cart."Put your trust in me instead, Your Excellency./I/ will never fail you."

Treize felt his heart sink into the pit of his stomach, and his insides churn with the digestion of it.//_Am I to lose wife and friend at once, then?But this—dear God, is this what I have made her?_//Guilt as overwhelming as his old friend's insanity burrowed into the depth of his soul and made its home there, wrenching his gut as he made his invitation."Well then, Lady, when you have recovered, I would like you to come command the Specials with me."

He kissed her hand and made his escape—he could not bear to watch her anymore.

****

**A.C. 195 **

It was glorious—the new Gundam, apparently patterned after Wing only moreso, blazing out of the embattled colony like the meteor they had all once been named for.

"Come on Quatre," Trowa whispered, his mind barely registering that the words had been said aloud. "Show me what that Gundam can do."He aimed the Vayeate's beam cannon at his one-time lover and silently rejoiced when its target dove out of the way.Quatre's Gundam raised both arms to form a single rifle, and the spectacular catastrophe of its ___ wiped out the last of the Oz soldiers under Trowa's command.

"There's nothing to worry about, Heero!"he called joyfully."That Gundam's unparalleled—we've got nothing to worry about.Quatre!"Eagerly, desperately he hailed their new ally."Can you hear me, Quatre?It's me, it's Trowa!"

But stony silence greeted him, broken at last by hard, ragged breath.He was about to call his lover's name again when he heard is own, barely more than a whisper across his speaker.

"I can hear you, Trowa."His skin tingled with the sound of that soft voice—it was Quatre's voice, and yet it was not; it had nothing of the softness or idealism of the boy he'd pledged his life to, tinged instead with a hysteria that set his danger-senses prickling along his spine.

"Don't come any closer, Trowa," Quatre continued—softly, whispering, deadly calm.Desperate to uncover the cause of this strange behaviour, he ignored the warning, sending the Vayeate diving toward the unnamed Gundam.Trusting, too trusting—Quatre's scream cut across his fraying nerves:

"What did I just say?Don't get any closer to me!" 

Space went white and orange again as Quatre fired, hitting the Vayeate dead centre and blasting the mobile suit backward with the force of the blow.A cry burst from Trowa's throat but he ignored it, wrenching the controls, pulling back and away.Too much damage to assess—not just to the Vayeate but to Quatre—what had happened to Quatre?

He hovered, adjusting his helmet and oxygen, pushing himself from the melted remains of his cockpit as he set to repairing what he could of the controls."Quatre...what's the matter?What's going on here?"

"Trowa."That terrifying, broken voice again, ragged with tears that spoke more of madness than sorrow."Outer space has gone crazy. So I'm going to destroy all of it.I have no choice, Trowa.The colonies are becoming armed.They want war.They don't know how awful it is!But I won't let them—I won't—"

"Stop it!"Trowa interrupted, pain thicker in his voice than he'd ever dared show anyone before."This isn't like the Quatre I know..."And softer yet, so soft he was never sure if he had spoken the words aloud:"This isn't like the Quatre I love."

"Tell the others for me," Quatre commanded sadly from the Gundam's cockpit."Tell them to stay away from me—otherwise I'll kill them, too."

//_Is this what Colonel Une meant?_//Trowa found her words echoing a little too uncomfortably in his skull, racked now with the desperate sorrow of his love's betrayal.//_What happened to do this to you, Quatre?Why?What's happened to us?_//

His thoughts interrupted, he saw Heero dive toward Quatre through the corner of his eye, aiming the Mercurius straight into the new Gundam's path.//_Don't—Heero, Quatre--_// But Trowa never voiced the warning; he had no time, Quatre screamed again and fired.

"Don't get any closer!Stay away from me!"

"Is that all you've got to say?"Heero demanded.The Mercurius' armour spared it from the worst of the blow and he dove expertly out of the way, readying his beam sabre."If everything has gone crazy, there's only one thing to do—I'll believe in myself, and keep fighting."The two suits spun, danced, two incredible pilots in two advanced mobile suits.

"Quatre," Trowa heard Heero whisper, "I'll stop you...even if I have to kill you."

Fire.Spin.Around.Again.Neither was gaining on the other—Quatre had more firepower, but Heero had the Mercurius' shield.As pilots they were evenly matched; Heero might have had slightly better reflexes, but Quatre had the strategic mind of an evil genius, and always seemed to know where those reflexes would take him.Fire.Dive.Tumbled.Attack.A macabre dance played against the velvet backdrop of outer space.

And the Mercurius was weakening.

"The shield won't hold much longer."He said it so calmly, as if it didn't matter, simply another statistic to add to the mix, a notation for Trowa's report later.

Quatre knew it was happening, too."Heero...why are we fighting each other?"His voice was plaintive, sad."The colonies have teamed up with Oz...they're my enemies now.They're your enemies now, too."

"Outer space has lost all reason," he pleaded."That's why I have to destroy everything.We can start all over again.That's natural, isn't it?"

Heero grunted in answer and dove toward him again.Quatre fired to the side, missing him on purpose, but swinging the beam around to keep him from moving closer."You'll die, Heero!"His voice had taken on a note of desperation, for all it never raised above a whisper."I don't want to kill my friends—please, Heero, get away from here—take Trowa, both of you get away—"

He seemed genuinely upset when Heero stood firm."Quatre, I'm not leaving," zero-one said, in a voice that reminded his former ally he should have expected nothing else.

A long, sad sigh."All right."The burst from Quatre's rifle slammed the Mercurius all the way back into the side of the colony, fusing the mobile suit to the metal ring.Heero tugged off his helmet; blood was streaming down his cheek where his head had hit the control panel.

"Heero, I can't leave this colony here any longer," Quatre said, miserable."I'd ask you to get out of your mobile suit, but I know you won't.So I have to kill you.I'm sorry, then."

"If you're going to do it," Heero growled, "then get it over with!I'm not going to sit here and chat with you about it!"

"That's it, then."It was hard to reconcile Quatre's words with the genuine regret in his voice."Goodbye, Heero."

He fired.Like the long arm of hell, the Gundam's beam arced toward the colony.Trowa wrenched control of the crippled Vayeate into his hands at last and did the only thing his heart told him he /could/ do—threw himself in front of it.

"Quatre!Why don't you realise what a big mistake you're making?Quatre!This battle is unnecessary!"He screamed into his comm as the fires around him died out, as the shadow that was the Mercurius relieved Quatre of his rifle.

"Trowa, the Vayeate's about to explode, get out now!"Heero's urgent directive cracked through his speaker.

It was strange, and calm, this acceptance of his own death."You're right," he said softly. "This is the end of the line for me."How peaceful it was.The chaos before him played to the mind-music of crying gulls, and the whisper of oxygen in his lungs was only the memory of laughing kisses.

_//"I wish you didn't have to fight tomorrow."//_

_ _

_//"I wish neither of us had to fight again, ever."/_

_ _

_//A kiss, a smile."That's why you're you."//_

_ _

_//"Would you...would you stay with me forever, if you could, and if I asked you to?"//_

Quatre's voice."No!Heero, save Trowa!"More spinning, the whirl of colours before his eyes, the dizzying hum of his engines on their way to overload.He didn't want to be saved, without Quatre...if only one of them was going to make it out of this, Trowa realised his loyalties had shifted.The colonies had lost out in favour of an idealistic, sorrowful blonde boy.

And he wanted that idealism back.

Heero tackled Quatre and knocked him back out of the way.Quatre was calling his name—a bit of pain, then, but hope as well, that perhaps there would be salvation after all.

"It doesn't matter how it happened," he said, remembering Une's words from earlier—how long ago it seemed now!"But the colonies have teamed up with Oz...and we have to keep in mind that it does mark the end of a war.At the same time it means that our missions have come to an end."

_//"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"//_

_ _

_//"Of course! Are you?"//_

_ _

_//"More sure than I've ever been of anything.I don't know how the words go, though."//_

_ _

_//"That's all right...we'll figure them out as we go."//_

The sorrow was almost too much to bear—he would welcome the end, when it came."From our point of view...as disappointing as it is that the colonies we've been fighting for have change their perspective, that's what happens in war.We've got no choice but to accept it.The only question left is, what happens to the remaining soldiers?What happens within our hearts?"

What had happened within his /own/ heart?

_//"I, Quatre Raberba Winner, take you, Trowa Barton..."//_

_ _

_//"I, Trowa Barton, take you, Quatre Raberba Winner..."//_

"With us Gundam pilots, we were completely trained to be soldiers before we even realised it.When you put everything into a battle, you start to think that you can change the times all by yourself, don't you?Trust me...you're not the only one who feels that way.We all do."

_//"in good times and in bad times..."//_

_ _

_//"In peace and in war... (that's not how it goes!)I know, but it makes more sense this way..."//_

Without Quatre he would never have felt at all.

"The kinder you are, the bigger a toll it takes on you.We have to fight with ourselves, with our hearts, and we have to do it harshly, in order to come to the right conclusion...even if it means our battles today are meaningless.We have to acknowledge the facts.The five of us have become nothing more than redundant soldiers, Quatre."

The harsh truth—but relief, as well, because he was tired.He had tasted another possibility, even if it was no more than the fleeting glimpse of a dream as it faded into morning.He had grasped it, reached for it—it should not have surprised him that it would never truly come to be.

_//"...for better, for worse...I love you, you know..."//_

_ _

_//"I love you, too.."//_

"So now, let's accept this."He was all but begging, now."Turn back into the Quatre I knew.I just hope that something triggers your mind and calms you down...."

The Vayeate's shaking made his hands slip on the controls.The seat, the metal—it was all hot, testament to the meltdown that was about to take out his engines.

"Something..." he repeated, knowing full well it wasn't what he wanted to say—what he meant was

_//"forever and ever...til death do us part."//_

And all around him, space turned white.

****


	11. Book II, ch. v

Toy Soldiers Unknown User Normal Unknown User 1 1 2001-10-22T06:18:00Z 2001-10-22T06:20:00Z 8 3268 18633 DellComputerCorporation 155 37 22882 9.2720 4.5 pt 2 2 

Toy Soldiers

by Ashura Nagisa

disclaimer:  I don't own GW.  Surprise, surprise.

pairings:  subject to change, but so far:  13x5, 11+13, 2x11, 3x4

warnings/notes:  AU, because playing fast and loose with the timeline and actual events.  Yaoi, het, drama, angst, violence, sap--um, how about just "everything"?

****************

Book II:    The Star Moves Not But In His Sphere

****************

Chapter Five

"Those who long ago were known as sophisticated at battle could make adversaries in conflict."

            --_Sun Tzu (The Art of War)_

****

There was always so much extravagance at these events, Treize thought sourly.  Part of him felt like a world-class hypocrite for thinking it—after all, he had never been one to resist temptation and decadence either.  But still—at least he /realised/ there were other people out there in the world who were fighting and dying and generally being miserable, many of them in his name, and he honoured them in his thoughts.  The greying old man standing at the podium, and most of his coterie, all seemed to believe it was all just some inherent /right/ that they were allotted.

"The system for mass production of mobile dolls," Duke Dermail was announcing, "is almost in place.  As the ruling class to be, we will place mobile dolls in dispute-ridden regions—thus, gentlemen, we will show the world how powerful we are, and bring order to the earth.  Is it not time to return to a world of tradition and honour, that we might govern this world properly?"

The applause was considerably more than polite, and it grated on Treize's fraying nerves.  He noticed the strange looks shot his way when he did not even make a movement to raise his hands and join them.  Instead he straightened his shoulders and strode forward, never allowing to the distaste he felt.  

His short cape draped over one shoulder, swishing gracefully around him.  His boots, polished to a high shine, thumped purposefully with each step even on the carpet rolled through the aisle where he walked.  He stopped before Dermail, a challenge glinting in his eyes.

The Duke did not seem to grasp his intent at first.  "Treize Khushrenada," he said warmly.  "I am depending on your leadership of Oz!"

//_You would like that, wouldn't you?_// Treize thought resentfully.  //_You would never have come as far as you have without me, and you were certainly useful for a while.  But it's time for us to part ways, old man.  And you'll understand, I'm sure, if it's only within my nature to make my exit grand?_//

"Duke Dermail," he announced calmly, "I'm sorry...but I cannot support the Romafeller Foundation in the path it's taking."

"What?!"  Aha, so he had taken the old man by surprise.  Good.  The better to make him listen, then.

"Tradition is a history," he began, his clear voice ringing through the great hall.  "It's the history of caring, built by the pure, true feelings of people.  And I do think that fighting can at times be beautiful."

//_She never wanted to be a soldier til you filled her head with how glorious battle was...everything she's done in her life since has been because of you...._//

He let the shame, the bitter sorrow, fill his voice as he spoke the next words.  "At the same time, I would like to express my regret over the lost souls, by appealing to you to remember how truly precious man's life is."

//_I shall miss Nicole, she was a good friend...Put your trust in me instead, Your Excellency.../I/ shall never fail you...._//

  
"I believe that what mankind needs is not absolute victory, but a certain demeanour in fighting—an attitude toward fighting."

//_And that Wufei has shown me...my perfect warrior, perfect tradition, perfect pure soul.  I wonder if he has any comprehension of how he has affected me...._//

He continued to speak—he had rehearsed and memorised the words, but he knew that no matter how well he spoke them, his audience would never completely understand.  They did not share his memories, his guilt.  When they closed their eyes, they didn't see Leia falling under the sword of a mobile suit he'd built in secret, they didn't hear Une screaming as she tried desperately not to lose control.  They didn't feel the shock, the secret shame, the absolute ecstatic /joy/ of touching swords or bare skin with Wufei.

They didn't share any of it.  They did not share his dreams, his nightmares, or his goals.  And he was tired of them.

"The winners of any war," he concluded, "will eventually decline in power and become losers.  That is the cycle of things."  Vaguely he remembered telling that once to his daughter, before she was taken away.  "Then those losers cultivate a new leader, and it happens over again."

"Treize," Dermail said warningly, "what are you getting at?"

He sighed.  He was so tired of this.  "I'm saying," he said coldly, "that I want to be a loser."

He barely heard the rest.  He knew what Romafeller would require of him.  He lay his pistol on the podium—it was an elabourate antique; beautiful yes, but a symbol and nothing more.

//_Wufei...Nicole..Leia..._// It was to them he directed his prayers for forgiveness as he strode from the hall, his skin burning with the gaze of a hundreds eyes.  //_I have done you so much wrong, and this is all I can do to make it up to you.  Yet even while I do, I fear what I plan to do will be worse yet.  Forgive me.  Please, if you love me—if you ever once loved me—forgive me._//

****

Lieutenant Nichol glared at the vidscreen as it fizzled into grey.  "Colonel, we've lost all communications with the Vayeate and the Leo mother ship.  For all we know, they've all been wiped out."

She could hear what he did not give voice to.  For all we know, he meant, the Gundam pilots have turned and we've just given them our best weapons, he meant.  Une ignored it.  She knew better.

"And the colony?" she asked frostily.  He paused, his expression questioning.

"What about it?"

"Is the colony still there?" she repeated, irritable. "It hasn't been destroyed?"

He shook his head.  "No ma'am."

"Then the battle is still going on."  He didn't seem convinced, but she refused to let that bother her.  "Defending the colony is what Gundam pilots would do, Lieutenant, no matter what side they're fighting for.  I, for one, hope they'll be able to stop this new Gundam—don't you?"

"Yes ma'am," he stammered, sheepishly, and changed the subject as quick as he could.  "Before we lost contact, we /did/ get these images from the Leo mother ship."  A flick of his fingers on the keys brought the images onto the screen.  It /was/ a Gundam, and Une noticed with a good deal of relief that it was built to resemble the old zero-one, and not her long-extinct Valkyrie.  

"Good," she said softly as he clicked through several different views.  "Send these to the engineers at the lunar base, get some input from them."

Nichol looked surprised.  "But Colonel, we can't raise communications with the lunar base.  They're not answering."

"WHAT?" Une demanded sharply, and Nichol recoiled from her fierce glare.  "Get Tsuberov on and tell him to restore comm, and that's a direct order!"

"Lady," a warm voice said, deceptively mild, at her shoulder—that was Nathan, though she didn't know when he'd arrived.  "A message for you from His Excellency...he asked me to tell you that he and the Romafeller Foundation are parting ways at last."

Her hazel eyes narrowed.  "I see."  He met her gaze—understanding flashed between them, mixed with pain and sorrow and steel determination.  "Nathan—"

"I'm going with you," he said.

She shook her head.  "No.  Let me do this.  Besides, you'll be needed to pick up the pieces."  He started to protest.  "Doctor, that's an order."

He subsided, but unwillingly.  "I'm bugging you," he said flatly, as he reached under the collar of her jacket to fasten something small and metal to the underside of her shirt.  He'd had it with him?  He had known already, then.  "Somebody's got to keep tabs on you."

Une put up with it for about two minutes, then straightened her shoulders and turned to her crew.  "Move Fortress Barge within range of the lunar base," she ordered.  "And get the beam cannon ready."

She was going to get a response out of Tsuberov if it took an entire space fortress and a beam cannon to do it.  It was liberating, in a way—she hated him, and she knew Treize hated him as well, but they had been forced by circumstance to work together.  Now, if Treize was no longer a member of Romafeller, well neither was she.  

And while he might have nothing more at hand than an antique gun, /she/ had a good deal of firepower still at her disposal.

"Colonel!"  Nichol called to her.  "There's a squad of Taurus dolls headed this way, and Tsuberov's just called us back."

"Hello, Lady Une."  The acid voice, though it was what she'd wanted, still grated on her nerves.  "Transporting the Barge wasn't in today's plans, I didn't think."  

She returned his dark smile with a sinister one of her own.  Let him beware.

"The mobile dolls are ready to attack you at any time," he warned her.

Her lips curved up in a menacing smile.  "A merciless weapon," she acknowledged.

Tsuberov did not know her well enough, it seemed, to be frightened by the gleam in her eyes.  "Precisely," he answered.  "We've completed our mass production, and created superb soldiers that will allow the Romafeller Foundation to bring order to the earth."

Une let out a sigh.  "I didn't understand at first," she confessed, "why Mr. Treize hates the mobile dolls so much."

Tsuberov looked confused. "Pardon?"

"He fell in love with people," she explained with a sigh."  //_People, and one Gundam pilot,_// her mind supplied, but she kept that to herself.  "And with the deaths of people—the way it intensifies emotion, and drives the stakes so high.  High emotions lead to extreme choices.  People don't /live/ unless they are aware of the possibility of death."

The old scientist snorted derisively.  "That's how the weak would think," he growled.  "My mobile dolls are immortal soldiers, and the new age of battle that we will usher in will disregard death!"

"But they are not soldiers," Une replied, patiently, as if explaining to a child.  "They only replace those who are afraid to die, and cheapen the deaths of those who are not.  It doesn't matter if you win or lose—history has shown us that.  Emotions are honed by /fighting/, but continuing to fight."

"I fail to understand what you're getting at."  Tsuberov's voice was tight, veiled politeness over poison.

Une let the dark smile spread over her face.  "And that," she said calmly, "is why we will be enemies."

****

The air was getting thinner, and the world had begun to swim before Duo's eyes.  Stubbornly he forced himself to focus on the projected images of Deathscythe on the wall.  Maybe if he didn't think about breathing, he wouldn't need to anymore.

"Never guessed I'd die like this," he noted calmly to Wufei.  They had no more secrets, now.  It had wasted oxygen, to be sure, but what difference did it make if these were going to be their last moments anyway?  Their conversation had left him with a heightened admiration for Wufei—it was hard enough for him to reconcile his awkward relationship with Lady Une, and he wasn't really in love with her.  How difficult must it be for Wufei, who had found his soulmate in the one single person in all the universe he should /not/ be in love with?

He was sweating, and his hair was damp, his bangs sticking uncomfortably to his forehead.  He would have blown them out of his face, but he was afraid of wasting what little air remained.  "Hey Wufei...my Deathscythe's pretty cool, dontcha think?  I'll take care of Oz in no time at all...."

There was no answer, and despair assailed him.  //_Please don't be dead.  Be ignoring me or something, whatever, just don't be dead yet, I don't think I could handle seeing that._//  "What's wrong," he ventured tentatively, "you dead already?  Don't be deserting me now, Wufei...you've got to stick with me all the way to the end...."

His words were obviously having no response, and he turned, terrified of what he might see.  Wufei didn't /look/ dead.  He looked like he was meditating, or asleep.  Duo crawled over to him, praying to a God he hadn't spoken to in years for some sign of life.

Not breathing...at least it didn't look like he was...a hand held above his mouth didn't even get a warm puff.  His heart thundering in his chest, Duo felt the other pilot's wrist for a pulse.  //_Please be there please be there God please oh please don't be dead--_//

A sigh of relief.  Slow as it was, it was there, the faint flutter of a heartbeat.  Duo sank back on his heels, relief washing over him.  "He's in a stupid trance.  Just a trance.  Stupid Wufei."  He had to say the words aloud, it made him feel better, even if he didn't believe the part about Wufei being stupid.  A wave of dizziness hit and he let himself fall backward.  "Wish he coulda taught me how to do that...he might just make it out of here after all."  

Click.  Click.  Click.  Images of Deathscythe, projected on the ceiling.

****

Seldom in her career had Une felt real, genuine pride at the actions of her troops.  She did now, her heart welled with it, watching the arc of fire that always led to a mobile doll's destruction.  They had been attacked, of course—Tsuberov had a brain in his head, he'd be an idiot not to be afraid of the massive damage Barge's beam cannon would do to the base if it fired.

But since he didn't understand her, he could not fully anticipate her.  The space fortress was a decoy, a big impressive show that would give her and her smaller unit a chance to get into the base itself.  "Make it through this, Barge," she whispered toward the ship that had become /hers/.  "I will not be too long."

"Take over the production factory of the mobile dolls!"  she ordered as they landed and she pulled her helmet on over her glasses.  They—her favourites, her chosen—knew that had been the intended plan, and they rushed off at once. 

Her steps rang on the smooth metal floor as she pelted down the corridor.  When had she come to this decision?  Or was this simply an action she was destined to take?

Nichol was the one who had found the readout, that the oxygen had been cut off to the detention levels.  He was all in favour of it, that she knew—but he had learned from his last mistake.  He let her make her own decisions now, and followed her orders.  Once that had been established, she had no more reason to question his loyalty to her.

To /her/...not to Treize, or to Romafeller, but to /her/.  

What a waste.  She no longer even existed, save as an extension of Treize Khushrenada's will.

Was that why she was doing this now?  Her motivations confused her.  It was so grandly ironic—Duo Maxwell and Chang Wufei, pilots 02 and 05, silently suffocating to death in the depths of an Oz base.

One Treize' lover, and one her own.

Part of her wanted to let them die.  It would be easier.  Duo confused her; she had been completely unable to reconcile their brief relationship in her mind, so she had finally just given up thinking about it.  She didn't hold it against him that he had left—he was right, it was what she would have done as well.  The opportunity was there.

And zero-five...one more obstacle between her and Treize.  It would be easy, so easy, to say she had simply been too late.  To be the one to comfort him.

But that was it, wasn't it?  There was too much between them already.  She had cost Treize one love, and the pain of it had decimated her—she could not bear another such loss any more than he could.

//_So it's you that I'm doing this for, Treize,_// she told him silently, willing her thoughts to find him, wherever he was.  //_I will save your lover for you, and maybe we can begin to put things right between us.  Maybe someday you will be able to forgive me.  But I am so, so tired._//

She reached the control room, skidding across the floor, anchoring herself on the lever that controlled oxygen flow.  The metre, which had been dark, lit up again, and she let out a long breath.  "I hope I'm not too late already...."

The click of a cocking gun.  "Even if you aren't, we'll be executing them anyway," Tsuberov's crisp, calm voice informed her.

She didn't turn around.  "Then I'll ask that you include me as well."  One death or another, it made no difference, and her words distracted him from her actions.  She hit the release mechanism that would open the doors on the levels below.  //_Duo, Chang—go now!  Get to the Gundams and go!_//  "In the past, failure meant certain death."  She knew.  She had administered it herself.

"As you wish."  He was waiting.  Why was he waiting?  She turned to face him at last, staring him down with cold hazel eyes.  "Go on," she commanded.  "Shoot me, Tsuberov.  Confirm what you believe is right."  

"Ah, Lady Une," he said.  "You were far too lenient."

She was so tired.  She welcomed the shot when it came.  It meant freedom, from ever having to think again, freedom from caring and hurting and wanting.  It meant release from hiding from herself. It meant she would no longer have to hear her name, or have it echo in her mind as a reminder of everything she could never ever be.

It was such a relief to let go of her body as it fell to the ground.

So...tired....

****

Nathan took the stairs three at a time and almost tripped as he landed, skidding around one corner and into the mobile suit bay.  Idiot, he was chanting to himself.  Idiot, idiot, idiot.  He didn't really know if he meant himself, or Une, or both.

"Lieutenant Nichol!"  He raised his voice over the din of mechanics and pilots and banging metal.  The officer in question did not like to be addressed, did not like Nathan, did not like a lot of things.  It didn't matter.  What the young doctor needed was someone he could trust to get him to Une, and the hell with the rest.

"Get me to down to the base," he demanded, panting for breath between words.

The officer regarded him sourly.  "There's a battle going on," he pointed out.  "And my orders from the Colonel are to stay here and fire the beam cannon on her command."

"She's not going to give you the command," Nathan snapped.  "She's just been shot, and if you want her to live through the end of this battle, somebody has to get me to her right /now/!"

Amasing, really, how that was all it took.  Nichol opened the hatch of his own suit and motioned to Nathan.  

"Get in."

****

Oxygen flooded into Duo's burning lungs, and with it came joy.  He was still alive.  It was only compounded when the door to the cell whirred open, though he couldn't enjoy that too quickly—for a moment he did nothing but breathe, drawing air into his desperate, needy lungs, letting his body adjust to the sudden difference in pressure.

Wufei had noticed too, trance or not, and a wide smile broke across his face as he met Duo's eyes.  

//_Is that what he looks like for Treize?// he wondered suddenly, unexpectedly.  //__He looks completely different when he smiles...// _

And even more unbidden--//_Nicole's beautiful when she smiles, too.//_

But there was not so much time he could contemplate that for long.  Wufei had rolled to his feet and extended a hand to help him up.

"Well?  You're the one who was so excited about them...shall we go see how our new friends are coming along?"

Duo laughed.  "You bet!"  

They hurried down the corridor.  It was deserted, which shouldn't have come as a surprise—presumably all the guards had left when they'd turned off the air, though Oz didn't seem to have too many moral issues with killing off its own soldiers.  Duo led the way, dragging Wufei by the hand, toward the workshop where he'd found the engineers and his beloved Deathscythe.

"So," he shot over his shoulder as they ran, "guess somebody decided they didn't want us dead after all, huh?"

Wufei returned with a glare that said 'now is /really/ not the time,' but his eyes were shining anyway.

The Gundams, unfinished though they were, stood against the workshop wall, covered with tarpaulin and shadows in one corner.  

"It's only 70% complete," Duo said, swinging himself up into the cockpit and firing it up.  "But that'll do for now."

"Beggars can't be choosers," Wufei answered sagely, his voice crackling over the comm link as he settled in his own newly designed Gundam. "We're lucky to be alive as it is."

Duo grinned at him, though visuals weren't functional yet and he knew he couldn't be seen.  "Shall we escape?"

A little more acid, this time, in Wufei's voice.  "After we pay them back."

That, as far as Duo was concerned, was his cue to blow out the wall.  He heard Wufei snicker, barely audible from the depths of his speaker.

"You like to make a grand entrance, don't you?"

Duo laughed.  "What, like you don't?  C'mon, let's cause some trouble!"

There was already a battle going on, they only had to join it.  Duo didn't bother distinguishing—everybody was from Oz, it looked like, and if this was an internal insurrection, then so much the better for them.  He was just here to blow things up.

Below him, he caught sight of a group of uniformed men, fleeing the main wing of the base for the mobile doll production facilities.

"I don't think so—"  He swooped down, keeping cloaked, til he could get a better look.  Even if he wasn't picking a side, it wouldn't do him much good to get rid of them if they were on their way to take out the factory.

Then a glimmer of silver caught his eye, and his entire perspective changed.  One of the soldiers was entirely too familiar to Duo, and he didn't care /what/ his mission was.

"You!"  he snarled, barely aware that there was no way the diminutive figure running along the ground would be able to hear him.  "I've got welts on my back that will never go away because of you!  I spent a fucking week in bed!  And that's not even saying anything about the nightmares you've given me!"

"Duo?"  Wufei's voice over the comm, sounding concerned.

"Nothin' to worry about, Wufei!"  Duo forced himself to sing out as if he weren't about to exact some very personal revenge.  "I just ran into a familiar face, that's all, and Shinigami wants a chance for payback!"

It sounded a bit like Wufei sighed.  "All right.  Yell if you need me."

//_And that from the one that always fights alone?//  Duo wondered—but that was all the thought he spared for his companion's uncharacteristic behaviour.  _

With a scream, he uncloaked the Deathscythe and dove toward Tobita and the group of fleeing men.

****

tbc.


End file.
